'.:^i^i 


iiM 


BV  4211  .B437  1890~ 
Behrends,  A.  J.  f   18?q- 
1900. 

The  philosophy  of  preaching 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   PREACHING 


THE 


Philosophy  of  Preaching 


BY 


A.   J.   F,   BEHRENDS,   D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  Central  Congregational  Church, 
Bkooklyn,  N.Y. 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 


COPYRIGHT,   1890, 
BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS. 


TO    MY    WIFE 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

This  little  volume  contains  the  lectures 
given  in  the  month  of  February  of  the  pres- 
ent year,  before  the  Divinity  School  of  Yale 
University,  on  the  Lyman  Beecher  founda- 
tion. It  is  not  a  treatise  on  homiletics.  The 
questions  connected  with  the  preparation  and 
the  delivery  of  sermons  have  been  intention- 
ally passed  by.  The  aim  has  been  to  deal 
with  the  more  fundamental  inquiry  of  the 
end  of  all  preaching,  and  to  emphasize  the 
universal  elements  of  all  effective  religious 
address.  There  has  been  no  citation  of 
authorities,  for  the  simple  reason  that  none 
were  consulted  and  used.  The  vicAvs  here 
presented  had  slowly  taken  form  during  a 
ministry  of  twenty-five  years,  and  they  have 
at  least  the  merit  of  profound  personal  con- 
viction, which  the   author  has   been  encour- 

vii 


viii  PREFATORY  XOTE. 

aged,  by  friends  in  whose  critical  judgment 
he  has  great  confidence,  to  believe  may  be 
of  service  to  a  wider  circle  than  the  one  to 
which  they  were  first  given.  The  form  of 
direct  address  has  been  preserved,  as  a  change 
of  literary  dress  would  have  involved  a  rad- 
ical reconstruction  of  the  material,  with  the 
danger  of  an  enlargement  in  bulk,  which 
might  have  proved  unwelcome  to  the  reader. 
For  in  an  age  when  many  books  are  written, 
brevity  is  a  quality  which  every  busy  student 
appreciates.  A    T    F    B 

Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  March,  1890. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

The  Philosophy  of  Preaching.    1 1 

The  Philosophy  of  Preaching.    II 24 

The  Personal  Element  in  Preaching  ...  57 

The  Ethical  Element  in  Preaching    ...  78 

The  Biblical  Element  in  Preaching  .     .     .  104 

The  Spiritual  Element  in  Preaching.    I.     .  130 

The  Spiritual  Element  in  Preaching.     II.   .  166 

The  Practical  Element  in  Preaching      .     .  196 


1 
THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   PEEACHING. 

I. 

No  man  can  achieve  solid  and  satisfactory 
success  in  any  calling,  who  is  not  convinced 
that  the  services  which  he  renders  are  of 
substantial  benefit  to  the  public,  and  that 
what  he  gives  is  a  full  ecj^uivalent  for  what 
he  receives.  He  who  suspects  that  he  is 
merely  tolerated,  or  that  he  occupies  the 
place  of  a  dependent,  or  who  discovers  that 
he  is  retained  when  he  has  ceased  to  suj^ply 
a  living  demand,  inevitably  suffers  in  the 
consciousness  of  manly  independence  ;  and 
where  manhood  shrivels,  work  loses  its  dig- 
nity and  power.  I  have  always  admired 
the  spirit  of  the  man,  who  is  said  to  have 
applied  for  employment  to  a  wealthy  and 
charitable  merchant.  The  poor  fellow  Avas 
told  to  remove  a  huge  pile  of  stones  from 
one  end  of  a  field  to  another.  When  this 
task  was  completed  he  was  ordered  to  re- 
place them  in  their  original  position.     This 

1 


2  PIIILOSOrilY  OF  PREACHING. 

he  did  somewhat  reluctantly,  but  when  his 
employer  sent  word  to  have  the  operation 
repeated  a  second  time  and  as  often  as  the 
emploj'ee  chose,  the  latter  promptly  and 
fii-ml}'  rebelled.  He  did  not  care  to  \msy 
himself  at  a  useless  task.  It  made  him  feel 
like  a  beffofar,  and  this  conscious  deo-rada- 
tion  was  to  him  a  greater  evil  than  hunger. 
And  he  was  right.  There  is  dignity  in 
labor  only  when  it  is  directed  to  useful 
ends,  and  the  vigor  mth  which  a  true  man 
will  prosecute  and  push  his  chosen  work 
Mill  depend  upon  his  conviction  of  its  ne- 
cessit}'  to  the  welfare  of  the  world.  The 
final  cause  of  labor  is  an  ethical  and  extra- 
pereonal  one.  The  immediate  stimulus  is 
supplied  by  the  physical  needs  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  by  the  requirements  of  the 
liousehold,  but  amid  the  multitudinous  in- 
dustries of  modern  civilization  the  stagna- 
tion and  degfradation  of  character  can  be 
prevented,  and  the  noblest  manhood  can 
come  to  maturity  only  through  the  eonvic- 
tion  that  tin.'  liunil)lest  toiler  is  a  pul)lic 
benefactor. 

To  this  w  hoh'soiiii'  law  tlu'  pulpit  is  no 
exee[)tioii.  It  is  idh'  to  i-laim  for  it  tlie 
august  dignity  of  a  Divine  institution;   tor 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  3 

sucli  a  claim  can  be  substantiated  only  by 
the  eternal  necessity,  and  the  essential  ra- 
tionality, of  its  sphere.  It  is  not  enough 
for  some  men  to  insist,  with  Avhatever 
honesty  and  emphasis,  that  God  has  called 
them  to  preach ;  unless  their  message  com- 
pels an  audience,  and  produces  conviction 
of  its  Divine  origin  and  intrinsic  worth,  the 
world  will  look  upon  its  prophets  as  mis- 
guided enthusiasts.  The  counsels  of  God 
are  always  the  embodiment  of  infinite  power, 
wisdom,  holiness,  and  love.  They  are  woven 
into  the  essential  and  eternal  needs  of  hu- 
man nature,  and  of  human  history.  No 
commission  can  be  supposed  to  bear  the 
Divine  seal,  which  does  not  convey  a  mes- 
sage which  every  man  needs  to  hear,  and 
which  cannot  grow  obsolete  with  any  con- 
ceivable advance  in  civilization.  Is  preach- 
ing such  an  agency,  instituted  for  definite 
and  lofty  ends,  incapable  of  being  eliminated 
or  supplanted  while  history  runs  its  course  ? 
That  question  confronts  us  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  our  work,  and  every  man  should 
settle  that  debate  in  his  own  mind  before 
he  takes  upon  himself  the  holy  vows  of 
Christian  ordination. 

Paul  exhorted  Timothy  to  suffer  no  man 


4  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

to  despise  him.  to  iiiaintaiu  liis  self-respect 
l)y  making  full  proof  of  his  ministry,  even 
as  he  Avas  not  asluimed  of  the  Gospel  of 
Cln-ist,  among  angry  Jews  and  mocking 
Greeks,  because  he  knew  it  to  he  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  for  all  that  l^elieved. 
The  advice  has  not  become  obsolete.  It 
was  never  needed  more  than  now.  There 
is  no  place  where  decay  and  loss  of  power 
so  surely  and  swiftly  follow  upon  moral 
timidity,  or  that  want  of  intellectual  poise 
which  a  noble  self-respect  insures,  as  the 
pulpit.  The  preacher,  as  the  herald  of 
God,  should  be  the  humblest  of  men;  but 
that  humility  sho\dd  inspire  him  with  an 
unusual  and  sustained  boldness  Avhen  he 
speaks  to  his  fellows,  under  the  profound 
conviction  that  what  he  has  to  say  the 
w^hole  world,  from  prince  to  beggar,  needs 
to  hear  and  heed. 

All  this  may  seem  to  you  commonplace, 
requiring  no  argument.  For  yeare  your 
stufbes  and  associations  have  been  such  as 
to  impress  upon  you  the  necessity  aufT  tlie 
dignity  of  the  preacher's  vocation.  But 
you  will  soon  leave  these  quiet  retreats  of 
Christian  learning,  and  you  will  be  sum- 
moned   to    wrestle    with    a   prosaic  world. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  5 

There  are  some  things  which  no  theologi- 
cal seminary  can  teach  you.  There  is  no 
preparation  Avhich  can  save  you  from  the 
wrench  which  every  man  must  endure 
when  the  call  for  adjustment  to  his  practi- 
cal environment  presses  upon  him.  Some 
men  never  heed  that  call,  and  they  either 
drift  out  of  the  ministry,  or  they  console 
themselves  with  the  doctrine  of  total  de- 
pravity, bewailing  the  degeneracy  of  hu- 
man nature  which  prevents  any  man  from 
having  more  than  a  handful  of  hearers 
unless  he  be  either  a  heretic  or  a  mounte- 
bank. You  must  have  faith  in  your  mes- 
sage, and  you  must  have  faith  in  men ;  and 
if  your  message  fails  to  command  attention, 
the  most  sensible  thing  is  to  conclude  that 
you  have  been  lacking  in  practical  skill. 
Never  suffer  the  suspicion  to  shadow  you 
that  the  message  is  not  adapted  to  the 
hearer,  nor  that  the  Christian  preacher  is 
gradually  becoming  crowded  out  of  his 
place. 

That  suspicion  pervades  the  air  of  mod- 
ern life.  There  are  men  who  will  treat 
you  with  haughty  indifference,  or  ^vith 
condescending  civility,  simply  because  you 
are  a  clergyman.     They  do  not  believe  in 


6  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

tliL'  imuiliiK'ss  of  your  voration.  They  will 
rarely  come  to  hear  you  preach.  They 
may  take  a  pei"sonal  liking  to  30U,  and 
they  may  avail  themselves  of  yoiu-  services 
at  funerals  and  weddings,  but  they  would 
think  more  of  you  if  you  were  a  hod-car- 
rier or  a  brickla3'er.  They  will  say  it  is  a 
pity  that  you  became  a  priest,  seeing  there 
is  so  much  manly  stuff  in  you.  A  senti- 
ment like  that  cannot  be  argued  down. 
You  must  live  it  down,  and  you  can  live  it 
down  only  a,s  the  conviction  in  you  is  at 
white  lieat  that  your  work  is  tlie  manliest 
under  the  sun,  seeking  the  highest  jjracti- 
cal  ends  and  securing  the  most  stable  re- 
sults. That  will  give  tone  and  nerve  to 
your  speech.  That  will  make  you  impa- 
tient of  all  rhetorical  redundancies  and 
pyrotechnics.  That  will  give  pungency 
and  j)owcr  to  your  style.  The  ingrained 
consciousness  that  your  work  is  manly, 
\\\\\  make  your  pulpit  a  throne  of  manli- 
ness, of  strong  and  sturdy  utterance,  and 
they  who  once  sneered  will  come  to  listen 
with  respect,  and  will  not  go  away  without 
profit.  But  even  if  they  do  not  come,  you 
cannot  afford  to  enter  upon  your  work  un- 
less you  have  failli  in  its  essential  manli- 
ness, and  in  its  eternal  worth. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  7 

Nor  is  it  simply  the  non-Christian  ele- 
ment of  society  which  discounts  the  value 
of  preaching.  The  sermon  has  become  the 
butt  of  universal  ridicule.  Even  ministers 
speak  slightingly  of  it.  You  will  be  re- 
minded that  if  you  pray  more  than  five 
minutes  you  are  insufferably  tedious,  and 
that  a  sermon  of  half  an  hour  is  as  much  as 
the  average  audience  will  endui"e.  In  many 
churches  the  sermon  has  been  crowded  out 
by  the  service,  and  has  come  to  be  regarded 
as  an  appendage.  In  the  Roman  ritual  it 
is  altogether  overshadowed.  The  printing 
press  is  supposed  to  have  made  the  pulpit 
superfluous,  or  at  least  to  have  seriously 
narrowed  the  scope  of  its  influence ;  and 
there  are  not  a  few  earnest  Christian  men 
who  raise  the  question  Avhether  some  read- 
justment is  not  called  for,  whether  the 
preacher  should  not  gracefully  retire  before 
he  is  forced  to  withdraw,  and  is  left  behind 
like  a  shattered  hulk  by  the  retiring  tide. 
May  it  not  be  that  the  preacher  was  in- 
dispensable while  there  were  no  movable 
types,  and  that  with  the  invention  of  print- 
ing, and  the  diffusion  of  intelligence,  his 
importance  has  ceased?  The  inquiry  is 
not  a  very  logical  one,  in  the  face  of  the 


8  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

fact  that  (luring  the  Middle  Ages,  when 
there  were  no  i)rinting  presses,  there  was 
veiy  little  preaching,  and  that  since  the 
days  of  Gutenberg  there  has  never  been  so 
much  as  now.  The  printed  page  has  not 
made  speech  obsolete.  We  do  not  read  let- 
ters to  each  other  in  the  household,  and  we 
cb'op  the  pen  and  the  telegraph  in  favor  of 
a  pei-sonal  interview,  when  we  are  deter- 
mined to  secure  our  end.  I  have  known 
men  to  cross  the  continent  to  procure  in- 
formation promptly  and  at  first  hand.  The 
pen  may  be  mightier  than  the  sword,  but 
it  is  not  mightier  than  the  tongue.  Things 
are  talked  about  before  they  are  written 
about,  and  all  great  movements,  such  as 
the  Reformation,  the  revival  under  the 
Wesleys,  the  anti-slavery  campaign,  and 
the  temperance  reform,  depend,  for  their 
inauguration  and  success,  upon  the  proph- 
ets of  fieiy  speech.  There  never  has  been 
an  important  political  campaign  when  the 
stump  (lid  not  take  ])recedence  of  the  tri- 
pod. The  truth  is  that  tlie  jjower  of  s])eech 
is  man's  supreme  physical  endowment,  as 
the  power  of  thought  makes  him  the 
crowned  and  sceptred  monarch  of  the 
universe. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  9 

The  printed  page  is  only  an  enlarge- 
ment in  the  sphere  of  the  written  manu- 
script; and  if  the  manuscript  cannot 
supersede  the  spoken  word,  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  any  cheapening 
process  of  multiplying  copies  can  do  it. 
There  are  things  which  the  types  cannot 
reproduce.  The  recorded  sermons  of  White- 
field  do  not  glow  with  the  fire  of  his  won- 
derful oratory.  The  discourses  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  fail  to  disclose  the  secret  of  his 
quiet  and  resistless  power.  The  speeches 
of  the  greatest  orators  are  read  without 
emotion,  when  the  audiences  that  heard 
them  were  swept  and  swayed  as  by  a 
whirlwind.  The  face  of  Cicero  gave  power 
to  his  words.  The  concentrated  energy  of 
Demosthenes  carried  conviction  with  his 
argument.  The  kindling  eye,  the  play  of 
emotion  on  the  mobile  countenance,  the 
curling  of  the  lips,  the  pointed  finger  or 
sudden  thrust  of  the  hand,  the  erect  and 
quivering  frame,  the  blood  mounting  to  the 
temples,  the  momentary  pause,  the  rush  of 
rapid,  eager  speech,  all  that  belongs  to  an 
intense  and  vital  personality,  grappling 
with  great  thoughts,  moved  by  strong  pas- 
sions,  urged  forward    to   high   endeavor, 


10  nilLOSOPIIY  OF  PREACHING. 

cannot  l)e  tiansfeiTed  to  plates  of  metal 
and  traced  upon  paper.  If  sublimit}'  con- 
sists in  the  employment  of  the  simplest 
asrents  for  the  attainment  of  the  loftiest 
ends,  then  there  is  nothing  sublimer  than 
hinging  the  triumph  of  righteousness  in 
the  earth  ui)on  the  energy  of  Iniman  S2)eech. 
The  Greeks  laughed  at  tlic  dream.  In 
their  judgment  it  was  concentrated  folly. 
They  might  have  reflected  that  their  great- 
est reformer  and  philosopher,  the  peerless 
Socrates,  never  wrote  a  line,  hut  left  the 
deep  impress  of  his  ministry  upon  their 
intellectual  and  moral  life  by  the  use  of 
incisive  speech.  John  the  Baptist  was  only 
a  voice,  but  he  was  a  voice  that  waked  the 
dead.  It  was  by  the  sjjoken  word  that  our 
Lord  Himself  began  and  completed  His  won- 
derful career.  In  tliat  choice  they  all  acted 
rationally  and  deliberately.  It  is  the  spoken 
woid  that  jiicrccs  to  the  core,  and  secures 
innnediate  results.  There  is  no  disparage- 
ment of  the  i)ress  in  this  judgment.  It  has 
a  mighty,  a  noble,  a  wide,  and  enlarging 
mission.  It  is  the  ally  of  human  speech, 
not  its  enemy  or  supplanter.  So  long  as 
language  remains  the  ex})onent  and  vehi- 
cle of  tliought,  so  h)ng  must  the  lips  retain 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  11 

the  primacy  in  its  expression  and  enforce- 
ment. Speech  must  remain  to  the  end  of 
time  the  chief  agency  in  the  dissemination 
of  truth,  and  in  the  inculcation  of  right- 
eousness. 

Assuming,  then,  that  you  are  conscious 
of  the  dignity  and  of  the  vital  importance 
of  your  calling,  as  an  agency  whose  neces- 
sity is  rooted  in  the  moral  order  of  human 
life  and  history,  disclosing  the  evidence  of 
its  Divine  appointment  in  the  pertinacity 
of  its  continuance,  and  in  its  quiet  refusal 
to  be  shelved  by  studied  neglect,  or  crowded 
out  of  place  by  competing  aspirants,  it  is 
pertinent,  before  dealing  with  the  specific 
elements  which  should  enter  into  all  preach- 
ing, to  inquire :  What  is  the  mission  of  the 
Christian  preacher  ?     What  -should  be  the 
ultimate  aim  of  his  endeavor?     In  what 
vital,  organic,  permanent  relation  does  his 
vocation  stand  to  the  unfolding  life  of  the 
world?     The  traditional  answers  to  these 
questions  have  long  been  familiar  to  you ; 
but  they  have  dealt  more  with  the  construc- 
tion of  the  single  sermon,  than  with  the 
philosophy  of  preaching.     They  have  not 
brought  out  distinctly  the  final  cause  of  all 
preaching,  in  view  of  which  it  is  seen  to  be 


12  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

ii  rational  unity  amid  all  the  forms  which 
it  has  as.suiiK'd,  and  in  whose  attainment  it 
should  tuid  its  perpetual  inspiration  and  its 
filial  reward. 

One  large,  earnest,  aggressive  section  of 
the  Christian  Church,  whose  piety  and  con- 
secrated zeal  are  beyond  dispute,  maintains 
that  preaching  should  not  only  be  evan- 
gelical, but  evangelistic.  The  preacher  is 
simply  a  herald,  and  the  substance  of  his 
message  is  the  proclamation  of  the  free  for- 
giveness of  sins,  and  the  heritage  of  eternal 
life,  through  the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ. 
In  obedience  to  that  gracious  assurance, 
men  are  to  repent  of  their  sins  and  believe 
on  Christ.  The  message  of  the  pulpit  is 
mainly  to  the  unconverted,  and  every  new 
disciple  is  regarded  as  under  immediate  and 
incessant  obligation  to  increase  the  registiy 
of  converts.  To  save  souls  is  said  to  be 
the  preacher's  business,  and  the  salvation 
of  the  soul  is  associated  with  some  definite, 
formal,  and  public  act  of  confession  and 
committal.  The  preacher,  therefore,  sIk  >ul(l 
incessantly  urge  men  to  immediate  and  pro- 
nounced decision.  The  normal  life  of  the 
Church  is  assumed  to  be  one  of  perpetual 
revival,    in    the    restricted   sense    of    that 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  13 

phrase.  Under  such  a  theory,  preaching 
becomes  hortatory.  It  never  passes  beyond 
the  rudiments  of  religious  instruction.  It 
may  make  use  of  the  Pauline  epistles,  but 
it  cannot  move  in  their  deep  and  broad 
grooves.  It  is  constantly  tempted  to  dis- 
count and  discourage  thorough  and  system- 
atic training  in  Christian  intelligence,  and 
to  make  numerical  increase  the  standard 
of  ministerial  efficiency.  It  counts  the  con- 
verts, it  neglects  to  weigh  them.  Its  am- 
munition is  speedily  exhausted,  and  it  can 
live  only  by  frequent  change  of  place.  It 
is  ill  adapted  to  long  pastorates,  which 
demand  a  wider  range  of  instruction. 

I  am  not  condemning  the  evangelistic 
school  of  preachers.  They  have  been  an 
immense  blessing  to  Christendom.  They 
have  had,  and  have  still,  a  providential 
mission.  We  do  not  want  less,  but  more, 
of  the  evangelistic  temper.  The  revival- 
istic  form  of  preaching  is  the  only  one  which 
is  suited  to  pagan  communities,  and  with- 
out it  no  inroads  can  be  made  upon  the 
ignorant  and  degraded  masses  of  nominal 
Christendom.  It  is  needed,  too,  in  the 
highest  places,  where  the  pride  of  reason 
and  the  complacency  of  self-righteousness 


14  PIlILOtiOl'IIY  OF  PREACHING. 

resist  and  resent  the  claims  of  the  Gospel. 
Its  fire  should  burn  in  the  heart  of  every 
herald  of  the  cross.  No  jjreacher  should 
permit  himself  to  lose  the  jDOwer  of  direct, 
searching,  practical  appeal,  and  the  ever- 
lasting "•  Now  is  the  day  of  salvation " 
should  be  the  undertone  and  nionu'ntum  of 
all  his  speed).  But  the  evangelistic  theory 
of  preaching  is  partial.  It  fails  to  reach  all 
classes,  and  it  cannot  long  hold  those  whom 
it  does  reach.  It  has  no  meat  for  strono- 
men.  It  is  too  exclusively  emotional,  deal- 
ing only  with  the  rudiments  of  religious 
truth.  It  fails  to  touch  the  intellectual 
and  social  life  of  man  at  a  thousand  points. 
Clu-istianity,  as  embodying  the  power  and 
wisdom  of  God,  must  be  comprehensive  and 
cosmopolitan.  It  must  have  a  message  for 
all,  and  it  must  master  all  the  forces  of 
civilization.  It  cannot  neglect  the  univer- 
sity in  order  to  redeem  the  hovel.  It  has 
no  choice  in  the  matter,  if  it  be  the  Word 
of  God  to  man ;  and  hence,  in  every  age, 
the  Church  has  been  the  jjatron  of  sound 
learning  and  the  founder  of  seliools.  There 
must  ])e  ail  educated  ministry.  'J'here  must 
be  C'hiisliaii  seh()lai"s,  experts  in  historical 
and  literary   criticism,   equipped   with   all 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  15 

the  learning  of  tlieir  day.  While  therefore 
the  evangelist  has  his  place,  his  methods 
and  aims  do  not  exhaust  the  function  of 
preaching,  and  we  must  seek  for  a  more 
comprehensive  statement  of  the  Christian 
preacher's  mission. 

The  evangelistic  theory  of  the  sermon  is 
faulty  in  another  respect.  When  the  aim 
of  preaching  is  regarded  as  inciting  men  to 
believe  on  Christ,  that  they  may  be  saved, 
a  twofold  danger  is  imminent.  Salvation 
is  apt  to  be  regarded  as  synonymous  with 
future  and  eternal  blessedness,  and  the  re- 
lation of  faith  to  such  blessedness  assumes 
a  mechanical  aspect.  The  eternal  destiny 
of  a  soul  is  made  to  hinge  upon  a  single 
formal  act  or  word.  Tlie  BiblicaLauiphasis 
is  on  holiness,  not  on  happiness,  on  a  pres- 
ent and  progressive  purity  of  life ;  and- 
faith  is  the  sours  halitual  fellowship  with 
God  in  Christ,  by  whose  Spirit  renewing 
and  sanctifying  energy  is  imparted.  The 
evangelistic  theory  of  preaching  is  really 
sacramentarian  at  heart.  It  assumes  that 
the  cleavage  between  heaven  and  hell  is 
made  by  the  word  spoken  and  heard ;  just 
as  the  Romanist  confines  the  grace  of  eter- 
nal redemption  to  the  baptized.     It  virtu- 


16  PIIILOSOl'IIY  OF  PnEACIIlNG. 

ally  restricts  the  operation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  within  the  lines  of  evangelical 
Clmstendom,  and  makes  the  pulpit  the 
tlirone  of  eternal  judgment.  But  no  one 
has  ever  ventured  to  press  the  logic  to  its 
inevitable  and  paralyzing  conclusion.  The 
universal  salvation  of  all  avIio  die  in  in- 
fancy is  an  article  of  Christian  faith  which 
cannot  be  made  to  harmonize  with  the 
theory  that  the  design  of  preaching  is  to 
fix  the  eternal  destiny  of  souls,  to  save 
them  in  the  sense  of  getting  them  into 
heaven.  That  article  has  been  adopted  by 
the  sternest  school  of  Calvinism  in  our 
day.  Granting  it  to  be  true,  it  is  plain 
that  the  ordinary  means  of  grace  camiot 
constitute  tlie  general  and  fundamental 
condition  of  eternal  redemption.  The  great 
majority  of  the  saved  are  i^i'esumed,  by  the 
theory  of  infant  salvation,  to  belong  to 
those  who  never  in  this  life  heard  even  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  sweep  of  re- 
demption is  wider  than  the  voice  of  the 
preacher.  He  is  not  the  representative  of 
God's  judicial  action.  It  will  not  do  to 
say  that  only  adults  fall  under  the  rule 
that  eternal  destiny  hinges  upon  receiving 
or  rejecting  the  Gospel,  that  infants  and 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  17 

idiots  constitute  a  gracious  and  reasonable 
exception;  for  in  that  case  infanticide 
might  be  regarded  as  a  virtue  ;  and  besides, 
the  exception  is  so  tremendous  that  it 
hopelessly  vitiates  the  generalization  which 
assumes  that  preaching  is  the  great  sifting 
process  by  which  the  wheat  is  separated 
from  the  chaff.  It  cannot  be  the  preacher's 
business  to  people  heaven.  He  does  not 
carry  the  keys  of  death  and  of  the  un- 
derworld upon  his  girdle.  The  eternal 
destinies  of  men  are  in  God's  secret  and 
unsearchable  keeping,  and  cannot,  in  con- 
sistency with  our  faith  in  the  salvation  of 
infants,  which  we  regard  as  Scripturally 
warranted,  be  supposed  to  be  bound  up 
with  the  work  assigned  to  the  preacher  of 
the  Gospel.  Both  in  its  milder  and  in  its 
sterner  form,  therefore,  the  evangelistic 
theory  of  preaching  fails  to  be  consistent 
and  satisfactory. 

In  sharpest  contrast  with  the  evangelis- 
tic conception  of  preaching  is  what  I  venture 
to  call  the  evolutional.  It  assumes  that  the 
religious  life  is  germinally  and  potentially 
present  in  every  human  soul.  It  substi- 
tutes culture  and  development  for  conver- 
sion.    It  addi'esses  every  man  as  a  son  of 


18  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

God  and  an  lieir  of  heaven,  and  endeavors 
to  stir  within  him  the  recognition  of  these 
prerogatives.  It  makes  the  sermon  a  pious 
meditation,  a  devotional  monologue,  an 
emotional  deliverance.  It  claims  that  in 
Cliristian  assemblies,  at  least,  the  only  true 
function  of  preaching  is  the  development 
of  the  religious  sentiment,  enveloping  and 
pervading  the  communit}'.  Men  are  asleep, 
jiot  dead.  They  need  waking  up,  not  resur- 
rection from  a  moral  grave.  This  theory 
of  the  sermon  finds  its  most  illustrious  ad- 
vocate and  exponent  in  Schleiermacher,  and 
in  the  German  pulpit  its  influence  has  been 
mai'ked  and  salutary.  It  crowded  the  shal- 
low and  lifeless  rationalism  to  tlie  Avail,  b}" 
the  universal  basis  for  religion  wliich  it 
found  in  human  nature,  in  the  sense  of  abso- 
lute dependence.  Maurice,  Kingsley,  and 
Robertson  are  notable  representatives  of  the 
same  school,  and  this  form  of  the  sermon 
is  characteristic  of  Broad  Churchmanship. 
Robertson's  frequent  thrusts  at  the  Evan- 
gelicals are  not  due  to  slight  and  occasional 
divei'gencies  in  doctrinal  judgment,  but  to 
radical  difference  of  method  in  dealing  with 
men.  Tlicy  addressed  men  as  sinners,  avIio 
could   be   made  the  sons   of   God  only  by 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHi:S-G.  19 

a  supernatural  act  of  grace ;  he  regarded 
adoption  as  a  universal  act  in  Christ,  tlie 
indefeasible  dignity  and  heritage  of  every 
child  of  Adam,  a  treasure  hidden  in  the 
field,  of  whose  existence  every  man  should 
be  apprized.  Thus  the  burden  of  the  ser- 
mon  becomes,  "  you_are_saved,"  not  "  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come."  Whatever  judg-" 
ment  may  be  passed  upon  this  theory  of 
preaching,  the  earnestness  and  power  of  its 
exponents  cannot  be  called  in  question. 
They  have  sapped  and  undermined  the 
movement  toward  Unitarianism. 

The  profound  and  permanent  revolution 
inaugurated  by  Schleiermacher  is  familiar 
to  every  student  of  religious  life  in  Ger- 
many. In  his  own  case  the  theory  of  the 
sermon  grew  out  of  his  theological  system, 
so  far  as  he  had  any.  It  is  difficult  to  class 
him.  He  was  a  pantheist  in  philosophy,  a 
Calvinist  in  his  doctrine  of  decrees,  a 
Universalist  in  his  conception  of  the  scope 
of  redemption.  The  incarnation  was  the 
historical  emergence  and  expression  of  a 
universal  fact.  The  mediation  of  Christ 
involved  a  universal  restoration  to  holiness. 
The  decree  of  God  is  one  and  singular, 
executed  in  the  final  and  eternal  extinc- 


NO 


20  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

tion  of  evil.  Effectual  calling  is  universal. 
At  the  core  of  the  most  irabruted  soul 
hides  and  tliro)>s  tlie  indestructible  germ 
of  life,  ^v^apped  about  by  the  sheathings  of 
ignorance  and  sin.  To  tear  off  tliese  l)and- 
ages,  and  to  give  that  hidden  life  its  oppor- 
tunity of  expression  and  expansion,  is  the 
business  of  the  preacher.  The  soul  of  man 
is  religious  by  creative  constitution ;  it  is 
Christian  by  the  redemptive  energy  of  the 
Son  of  God.  Faith  is  its  normal  life, 
through  the  feeling  of  absolute  de^jend- 
ence,  -which  no  amount  of  scejiticism  or 
immorality  can  eradicate. 

"With  such  a  philosophical  l)asis,  the  ser- 
mon could  be  nothing  else  tluin  a  gentle, 
persuasive  appeal  to  the  muffled  inner  man. 
Kor  can  it  admit  any  exception.  It  must 
speak  the  same  language  in  Pekin  as  in 
Berlin ;  and  if  it  has  failed  to  evangelize 
the  capital  of  German  Christendom,  its 
mond  energy  will  not  suffice  to  storm  tlie 
citadels  of  heathenism.  It  may  work  aacII 
Avith  a  limited  class,  but  the  limitation  of 
its  clhciency  i)roves  that  the  theory  U}>on 
which  it  is  Ijased  docs  not  agree  with  the 
stubborn  facts.  Cliristlieb  pronounces  it 
an  ideal  conception,  sometliing  to  be  earn- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  21 

estly  and  devoutly  hoped  for  and  kept  in 
view,  but  he  insists  that  the  aggressive  and 
missionary  vocation  of  the  Church  demands 
also  the  evangelistic  form  of  preaching,  with 
its  pungent  and  urgent  summons  to  imme- 
diate repentance.  But  all  men  need  to  hear 
and  heed  that  call.  The  new  birth  is  a 
universal  necessity.  The  incompleteness 
of  Schleiermacher's  method  lies  in  the  fact 
that  his  diagnosis  of  human  nature  is  par- 
tial. He  has  read  only  half  its  testimony. 
He  emphasizes  dependence,  to  the  neglect  *"Vf'f  > 
of  ()l)ligation.  He  has  interrogated  the 
emotions,  but  not  the  conscience.  He  sees 
the  universal  restlessness  and  weakness  of 
man  more  vividly  than  he  does  his  univer- 
sal and  wilful  wickedness.  He  does  not 
apprehend  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin. 
The  majesty  of  the  moral  law  does  not 
receive  adequate  recognition  at  his  hands. 
The  dependence  of  man  is  at  once  constilu- 
tional  and  moral ;  in  its  highest  form  it  is 
the  equivalent  of  duty.  i\.nd  duty  implies 
the  opposite  of  weakness.  It  proclaims 
man's  dignity  and  unqualified  personal  re- 
sponsibility for  his  moral  state  ;  "  I  ought " 
means  "  I  can,  if  I  will,"  and  that  makes 
the  will  in  man  the  target  of  moral  assault 


22  PHILOSOPHY   OF  PEEALIllNU. 

and  appeal.  The  evolutional  or  devotional 
theory  of  preaching  overlooks  these  stern 
facts,  and  cannot  therefore  be  accepted  as 
defining  the  preacher's  vocation. 

Shall  we  combine  the  two?  Shall  we 
say  that  preaching  should  be  both  evange- 
listic and  educational,  that  it  should  aim  at 
conversion  and  edification?  That  Avould 
seem  to  be  the  natural  conclusion,  and  it 
is  the  theory  upon  which  many  preachers 
act.  They  divide  their  audiences  into  saints 
and  sinnei"s.  They  address  one  class  in  the 
morning,  and  the  second  class  in  the  even- 
ing ;  and  if  the  evening  is  stormy,  the  saints 
get  what  was  intended  for  the  siiniers.  Or, 
the  sermon  ends  witli  a  twofold  application, 
one  to  believers,  and  the  other  to  the  unre- 
gcnerate.  Such  a  method  cannot  fail  to 
jjroduce  mental  confusion  and  distraction. 
The  audience  is  not  treated  as  a  unit,  and 
no  one  hearer  gets  the  full  force  of  the  mes- 
sage. And,  yet,  this  is  unavoidable,  if  the 
preacher  construes  his  vocation  as  involv- 
ing, fii-st,  the  elimination,  through  the  }>roe- 
lamation  of  the  Gospel,  from  the  mass  of 
mankind,  of  those  who  are  chosen  unto 
eternal  life;  and  second,  the  tiaining  of 
Christian   Ijclicvcrs  in  doctrine,  eliarat-tcr, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING,  23 

and  active  service.  No  mortal  man  is  com- 
petent to  work  along  these  parallel  lines 
with  equal  and  balanced  effectiveness.  He 
will  inevitably  gravitate  to  one  extreme,  or 
the  other,  adopting  either  the  liortatory  or 
the  didactic  as  his  ordinary  and  favorite 
tone,  unless  he  can  combine  the  two  in 
some  higher  and  inclusive  method.  It  is 
evident,  too,  that  under  such  a  working 
theory,  the  pulpit  must  be  content  with  a 
comparatively  narrow  and  restricted  field. 
It  is  debarred,  by  its  own  act,  from  influenc- 
ing public  opinion  and  life  at  a  thousand 
vital  points,  bringing  upon  it  the  charge  of 
indifference  to  present  and  practical  evils, 
through  its  absorption  in  the  invisible  and 
the  future.  A  double,  or  twofold  theory 
of  preaching  discredits  itself;  for  unity  is 
the  test  of  philosophical  analysis;  and  a 
theory  which  makes  preaching  a  separat- 
ing or  sifting  agency,  intent  upon  the  en- 
largement and  edification  of  the  Christian 
Church,  surrenders  the  universality  of  its 
outlook,  and  j^roclaims  itself  to  be  simply 
an  instrument  of  ecclesiastical  proselytism. 
And  for  myself,  I  want  both  unity  in  the 
philosophy,  and  universality  in  the  out- 
look. 


n. 


Ix  till'  })rfcc'(liiig  lecture  the  question 
was  raised:  What  is  the  ultimate  aim  of 
preaching,  the  single  and  comprehensive 
practical  })urpose  which  the  preacher  should 
have  in  mind,  in  all  his  studies,  in  the 
preparation  and  in  the  delivery  of  every 
sermon  ?  Sermons  have  been  divided  into 
textual  and  topical ;  into  expository,  doc- 
trinal, experimental,  and  practical ;  into 
hortatoiy  and  didactic  ;  hut  these  divisions 
are  in  order  only  when  the  germinal  idea 
of  the  sermon  has  been  clearly  thrown  into 
conscious  relief.  There  is  something  in 
the  true  sermon  which  distinguishes  it 
from  every  other  form  of  public  speech. 
Nor  is  tliat  distinction  due  simply  to  the 
contents.  The  form  is  hardly  less  impor- 
tant than  the  matter,  and  form  is  largely 
determined  by  the  presence  or  the  al)sence 
of  deliberate  intention.  Each  sermon  will 
24 


PHILOSOPHY   OF  PREACHING.  25 

have  its  specific  intention,  but  all  the  ser- 
mons of  a  year,  and  of  a  lifetime,  are  prop- 
erly an  orderly  and  progressive  unity ;  in 
which,  to  use  the  phraseology  of  Herbert 
Spencer,  the  integration  keeps  pace  witli 
the  differentiation.  The  sermon  has  its 
definite  place  and  purpose,  and  to  these  it 
should  be  held  as  rigidly  as  the  planets  are 
held  by  the  force  of  gravity. 

Nor  does  the  preacher  stand  alone.  He 
belongs  to  a  great,  living  army,  whose  num- 
bers must  keep  step  together,  and  move 
along  many  widely  separated  lines,  and  by 
many  different  paths,  towards  a  common 
goal.  There  is  not  one  law  for  the  metrop- 
olis, and  another  for  the  frontier  settlement ; 
one  law  for  nominally  Christian  commun- 
ions, and  another  for  pagan  populations. 
Consciously  or  unconsciously,  intentionally 
or  otherwise,  the  preaching  of  any  age  is  a 
vital  and  vitalizing  unity,  a  definite  force 
designed,  in  the  Divine  plan,  to  produce  a 
definite  result. 

The  generations,  too,  are  interlocked. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  an  integration  of 
dispensations,  an  evolution  of  history,  which 
is  but  another  name  for  the  march  of  God's 
redemptive  thought.    In  this  evolution  and 


26  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

march  preaching  has  its  appointed  j)lace  ; 
and  though,  for  purposes  of  literary  criti- 
cism, we  may  distinguish  between  modern, 
and  mediaeval,  and  apostolic,  and  prophetic, 
and  ante-diluvian  preaching,  the  classifica- 
tion must  proceed  upon  a  principle  which 
introduces  unity  into  the  diversity.  The 
preaching  of  Noah  was  very  different  from 
that  of  Paul,  both  in  form  and  in  substance, 
in  point  of  time  and  range  of  thought ;  but 
so  far  as  both  preached,  tliere  must  liave 
been  identity  in  the  Divine  intention. 
Preaching  is  like  a  wide-branching  oak 
or  elm,  Avhose  every  twig  and  leaf  are 
nourished  and  colored  by  the  sap  which 
flows  from  tlie  tap-root.  It  is  not  a  dis- 
tinctively Christian  agency.  It  had  a  re- 
markable history  in  the  eighth  and  succeed- 
ing centuries  before  Christ,  wliose  records 
are  preserved  for  us  in  the  proplietic  books 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  whose  mighty  influ- 
ence upon  subsequent  Jewish  life  is  not 
even  yet  adecpiately  understood.  It  was 
jDrominent  and  powerful  in  the  days  of 
Samuel,  in  whom  again  we  discover  only  a 
revival  of  the  spirit  of  Moses.  The  })rophet 
was  the  true  oracle  of  the  theocracy ;  its  initi- 
ating, conserving,  guiding  foree.    Not  Uj)on 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  27 

Aaron,  but  upon  Moses,  rested  the  common- 
wealth of  Israel.  By  the  hands  of  a  prophet 
the  Decalogue  was  given,  and  by  prophets 
the  will  of  God  was  made  known.  Tem- 
ple and  sacrifice  belonged  to  the  vanishing 
form  of  the  dispensation,  but  the  prophet 
was  master  of  a  universal  tongue,  and  his 
speech  is  as  pungent  and  piercing  as  ever. 
Preaching  has  only  become  more  frequent 
and  widely  diffused,  with  a  larger  store  of 
truth  at  its  command ;  but  though  the 
stream  has  deepened  and  widened,  the 
pulse  and  push  of  the  fountain-head  remain 
unchanged.  And  if  we  want  to  know  what 
the  preacher's  definite  vocation  is,  we  can- 
not afford  to  neglect  inquiring  into  the 
philosophy  of  prophecy ;  for  prophecy  con- 
stitutes the  vital  bond  between  the  Mosaic 
and  Christian  dispensations.  The  priest 
has  gone,  the  prophet  remains ;  first  in 
appearance,  perpetual  in  his  ministry. 

Advancing,  then,  from  negative  criticism 
to  positive  statement,  let  me  begin  by  say- 
ing that,  in  my  judgment,  no  better  and 
more  helpful  definition  of  the  preacher's 
vocation  has  been  given,  in  recent  years, 
than  the  one  to  which  the  first  incumbent 
of   this   lectureship  gave  expression,  sup- 


28  rillLOSOPllY  OF  PRKACniXG. 

portiiio-  it  l)y  an  appeal  to  the  words 
of  Paul  ill  his  Epistle  to  ^  the  Ephe- 
siaiis.  '•  Reconstructed  Manhood^''''  was  the 
vivid  phrase  into  which  he  packed  his 
theory  of  the  sermon ;  and  if  we  may  i)re- 
suine  that  he  entertained  no  individualistic 
resti'iction,  l)ut  had  in  mind  a  reconstructed 
humanity  or  liuman  society,  a  redeemed 
race  of  mortal  men  and  women  on  earth, 
the  definition  may  he  accepted  as  complete 
and  comprehensive.  It  certainly  supplies 
the  preacher  Avith  something  definite  and 
tangihle.  It  makes  liim  deal  Avith  men  as 
they  are,  as  needing  moral  reconstruction, 
and  it  urges  him  to  look  for  immediate  and 
practical  results  in  life  and  conduct.  The 
Gospel  becomes  a  living  message  to  living- 
men.  Salvation  means  a  present  manhood 
after  the  ideal  in  Christ,  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  Divine  truth  and  by  the 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  not  a  boon  to 
be  secured  at  death.  It  is  the  man  in  his 
mortal  body  Avith  aaOioui  the  preacher  AA'res- 
tles,  instead  of  lixing  liis  thoughts  upon 
the  disembodied  spiiit.  The  heaven  into 
Avhieli  he  urges  men  is  tlie  reign  of  right- 
eousness on  eartli  :  tlie  hell  fVom  which 
he  AN'oultl  phick    tlieni,   as  l)raiids  I'roni  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  29 

burning,  is  the  hell  of  greed  and  lust, 
of  brutal  passion  and  degraded  life.  He 
makes  holiness  urgent  now  and  always. 
He  insists  upon  an  immediate  and  radical 
repentance,  a  change  of  conviction  issuing 
in  a  new  creation,  whose  order  and  beauty 
transfigure  a  prosaic  and  busy  world. 
Eternity  is  to  make  time  radiant  by  the 
triumph  of  righteousness  in  all  lands.  All 
powers  of  body  and  soul,  all  achievements 
of  industry,  learning  and  art,  the  life  of 
home  and  the  policies  of  nations,  are  to 
answer  with  joyful  alacrity  the  touch  of 
Christ's  pierced  hands. 

Cicero  said  of  Socrates  that  "  he  caused 
philosophy  to  descend  from  heaven  to 
earth,  to  enter  into  the  cities  and  homes 
of  men,"  by  his  conception  of  wisdom  as 
dealing  with  the  principles  and  the  prac- 
tice of  personal  and  political  virtue.  It 
was  a  great  and  fruitful  revolution  in  the 
method  and  aim  of  speculative  thought. 
And  the  theory  of  preaching  which  con- 
centrates all  its  attention  upon  the  recon- 
struction of  human  society,  urging  indi- 
vidual repentance  and  regeneration  with 
a  view  to  pervasive  and  universal  moral 
rectitude,    lirings    the    pulpit    into    living 


30  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

touch  -Nvitli  all  that  concerns  human  weal. 
It  answers  the  severe  tests  of  unity  and 
universality,  without  which  no  philosophy 
can  establish  its  claim  to  truth.  It  has  the 
same  message  for  every  man,  in  every  age 
and  in  every  clime.  It  invests  the  present 
life,  and  the  march  of  history,  with  a  sig- 
nificance which  the  probationary  theory  of 
our  present  existence  does  not,  and  cannot, 
give  to  it.  It  makes  the  ethical  the  real 
eternal ;  and  l)i(Ls  us  look  for  the  golden 
streets,  and  the  gates  of  pearl,  and  the 
walls  of  jasj^er,  as  the  glory  of  a  city  which 
is  to  descend  out  of  heaven,  to  become  the 
capital  of  an  earthly  em})ire.  It  looks  upon 
literature  and  art,  upon  commerce  and  gov- 
ernment, as  subject  to  the  authority  which 
it  represents,  and  as  destined  to  become  its 
powerful  allies.  It  claims  all  liuman  life 
as  its  own,  to  be  purified,  sweetened,  en- 
larged by  its  Divine  ministry.  It  preaches 
the  same  old  Gospel,  but  it  makes  the 
message  intensely  urgent  and  practical.  It 
demands  not  only  decision,  but  obedience,  a 
faith  whose  fruit  is  abundant  and  precious. 
It  does  not  save  here  that  it  may  reap  here- 
after.    It  wants  to  fill  the  irarners  of  earth 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  31 

to  overflowing-,  that  God  may  be  honored 
and  men  may  be  blessed. 

It  is  true  that  preaching  has  never  been 
able  wholly  to  ignore  the  importance  of  the 
present,  earthly  life,  and  has  always  insisted 
that  true  relio-ion  encourages  and  uro-es  to 
true  morality.  But  the  emphasis  has  been 
oftener,  and  more  generally,  upon  future 
destiny  than  upon  present  character.  The 
old  formula,  that  out  of  the  Church  there 
is  no  salvation,  meant  that  the  gates  of 
heaven  opened  only  at  the  bidding  of  the 
priest.  And  the  Protestant  tests  of  faith 
and  repentance,  or  of  an  experimental 
knowledge  of  Christ's  saving  power,  have 
been  regarded  in  the  same  way,  as  evi- 
dences here  of  what  their  professors  shall 
secure  hereafter.  Hence  the  charges  and 
countercharges  of  Romanist  and  Protestant, 
that  religion  and  morality,  piety  and  purity, 
have  been  sundered  or  united  by  artificial 
bonds.  Hence  the  charge  so  frequently 
made  that  popular  and  traditional  Christi- 
anity makes  virtuous  conduct  of  no  prac- 
tical account,  by  its  doctrines  of  priestly 
absolution  or  of  saving  faith ;  and  that  in 
this  matter  Luther  is  as  great  a  sinner  as 
Tetzel,  as  in  either  case  it  is  the  state  after 


32  PIIILOSOrilY  OF  PREACHING. 

death  which  ah.sorl)s  attention.  I'or  my- 
self, I  must  frankly  confess  tliat  the  grave 
charge  has  only  too  much  truth  in  it;  and 
that  tliei'e  is  hut  little  relief  in  urging  that 
an  assured  hope  of  heaven  cannot  fail  to 
make  a  man  pm-e.  The  sad  facts  do  not 
bear  out  the  statement;  for  the  greatest 
scandals  have  come  from  men  who  have 
been  loudest  in  affirming  the  assurance  of 
salvation;  and  l)esides,  it  does  not,  to  say 
the  least,  seem  to  l)e  a  ver}-  high  morality 
which  cultivates  decency  in  l)ehavior  under 
the  pressure  of  future  reward.  There  is 
certainly  nuuh  to  commend  a  theory  of 
the  preacher's  vocation,  which  compels  an 
emphasis  upon  present  character,  and  which 
deals  with  the  hereafter  only  incidentally 
and  by  implication.  I  am  not  sure  but  it 
would  be  wise  to  give  to  the  doctrine  of  an 
earthly  probation  a  different  theological 
turn ;  so  that,  instead  of  saying  that  every 
man's  eternal  destiny  is  determined  at 
death,  we  sliould  allirm  that  the  preacher's 
vocation  deals  directly  only  witli  the  life 
on  this  side  of  the  grave.  Let  him  do  his 
utmost  to  make  the  life  of  God,  and  the 
grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  real  in  tlie  men  and 
women    to    whom    he    speaks    and    among 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  33 

wliom  he  lives,  and  he  may  encourage 
them  to  be  fearless  of  that  future  whose 
secrets  are  pierced  only  by  the  eyes  of  om- 
niscience. It  may  seem  as  if  the  idea  of 
reconstructed  manhood,  or  of  a  redeemed 
human  society  on  earth,  is  a  serious  nar- 
rowing of  the  preacher's  vocation,  but  it 
has  the  advantage  of  a  clearly  outlined 
task,  in  whose  performance  he  touches  all 
men  in  the  use  of  all  their  faculties.  And 
if  it  should  appear  that  this  conception 
pervades  the  Scriptures,  and  constitutes  the 
unvarying  undertone  of  its  most  impres- 
sive appeals,  woven  into  its  history,  color- 
ing alike  its  precepts  and  its  promises, 
breathed  in  its  prayers  and  its  praises, 
stirring  in  its  prophecies  and  pealing  in  its 
judgments,  it  will  be  the  part  of  wisdom 
to  bring  ourselves  into  close  and  loving 
adjustment  with  the  methods  and  aims  of 
those  who  spake  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

Now,  the  very  structure  of  the  Bible  is 
such  as  to  suggest  that  preaching  was  de- 
signed to  be  a  historical  agency  for  the 
moral  training  of  the  race,  instead  of  a 
means  for  the  determination  of  personal, 
eternal  destiny.     Upon  the  latter  assump- 


34  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHINO. 

tion,  the  long  delay  in  the  advent  of  Christ, 
and  the  acknowledged  imperfection  of  all 
preceding  revelation,  constitute  a  most  se- 
rious embarrassment  in  any  attempted  vin- 
dication of  the  impartial  justice  and  love 
of  God.  It  may  be  defended  on  the  plea 
of  the  Divine  sovereignty,  as  unconditional 
and  inscrutable ;  but  such  a  logical  proce- 
dure is  too  summary  for  Christian  intelli- 
gence. I  am  not  surprised  that  modern 
theodicies,  starting  with  the  assumption 
that  the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached  among 
all  nations  in  order  that  the  elect  may  be 
gathered  into  heaven,  are  pushed  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  gracious  proclamation 
must  be  continued  through  the  intermedi- 
ate state,  in  order  that  every  soul  may  have 
its  equal  and  full  opportunity  for  intelligent 
and  deliberate  action.  The  vice  in  the 
logic  is  in  the  major  premise,  for  which  I 
have  failed  to  find  any  su})[)()rt  in  the  Word 
of  God.  Preaching  appears,  througliout 
the  inspired  pages,  as  a  historical  agency, 
Avidening  in  its  scope,  increasing  in  the  in- 
tensity of  its  power,  accumulating  its  stores 
of  truth,  designed  and  iitted  to  produce  a 
historical  result. 

The  Bible  is  the  most  liviuo-  of  all  books. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  35 

Every  chapter  and  [)aragrapli,  every  psalm 
and  prayer  and  prophecy,  bears  tlie  birth- 
mark of  some  great  and  earnest  souL  It  is 
the  fragmentary  record  of  sixteen  centuries, 
more  correctly  of  forty-one  centuries  of  Di- 
vine education  ;  starting  with  the  promise 
of  the  serpent-bruiser,  and  crowned  by  the 
sublime  Gospel  from  the  pen  of  John.  If 
its  creation  was  a  vital,  historical  evolution, 
what  can  its  mission  be,  now  that  it  is 
winged  and  fully  ecpiipped  for  its  task,  but 
a  historical  leavening  of  the  life  of  human- 
ity which  shall  be  commensurate  with  the 
long  story  of  its  production?  An  instru- 
ment which  was  forged  and  shaped  in  the 
fires  and  on  the  anvils  of  four  thousand 
years,  while  cities  were  built,  and  wars 
were  waged,  and  empires  vanished,  and 
great  literatures  were  created,  all  of  them 
meanwhile  preparing  the  opportunity  of 
its  use,  and  opening  a  path  for  the  display  of 
its  power,  must  have  for  its  immediate  aim 
a  subjugation  and  transfiguration  of  terres- 
trial life,  whose  sublime  grandeur  no  fancy 
can  sketch,  and  which  can  find  expression 
only  in  the  extraordinary  imagery  of  the 
Apocalypse.  The  dream  of  Babylon's  fa- 
mous king  is  involuntarily  recalled,  where 


36  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

the  huge  image  of  gold,  silver,  brass,  iron, 
and  clay,  representing  the  march  of  political 
history,  is  smitten  by  the  stone,  hurled  of 
unseen  hands,  grinding  the  image  into  pow- 
der, and  covering  the  whole  earth.  Such  an 
issue,  the  universal  reign  of  righteousness 
on  earth,  makes  luminous  the  long  and 
severe  educational  process  which  culmi- 
nated in  the  advent  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
in  the  apostolic  ministrj^ 

A  second  corroborative  f)roof  that  preach- 
ing is  a  divinely  appointed  agency  for  the 
accomplishment  of  a  historical  result,  is 
found  in  the  comparative  silence  of  Holy 
Scripture  on  the  life  beyond  the  grave.  I 
say  comparative  silence,  because  personal 
immortality  is  involved,  by  necessary  impli- 
cation, in  its  doctrine  of  what  God  is,  and 
in  its  description  of  His  relation  to  man  as 
created  in  His  image,  and  summoned  to  in- 
timate and  confidential  fellowsliip  with  Him. 
But  the  future  life  is  not  the  great  burden 
of  its  revelation.  There  is  no  explicit  af- 
firmation of  it  in  the  Pentateuch.  Only 
once  does  its  ho})e  burst  from  the  lips  of 
Job,  and  even  then  the  meaning  of  his 
words  is  not  perfectly  clear.  In  the  lofti- 
est psalms  it  finds  only  vague  expression. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  37 

The  prophets  maintain  the  same  strange 
reserve.  All  through  the  Old  Testament, 
Hades  is  the  underworld  shrouded  in  im- 
penetrable gloom ;  and  the  disembodied 
state  is  not  regarded  as  an  abode  of  rest, 
nor  as  the  transfer  to  a  higher  sphere. 
Not  until  we  reach  the  New  Testament  and 
read  the  story  of  our  Lord's  resurrection  do 
we  come  to  clear  visions  of  the  future.  The 
gloom  vanishes ;  the  ancient  silent  faith 
speaks  out  in  jubilant  tones,  that  to  have 
died  and  so  to  be  with  Christ  is  far  better. 
But  even  here  the  revelation  is  scanty,  and 
leaves  a  thousand  questions  unanswered. 
Uninterrupted  personal  identity,  and  an 
advance  in  blessedness,  we  may  confidently 
affirm  for  all  who  die  in  the  Lord ;  but  even 
for  them  there  is  something  lacking  until 
Christ  shall  come  at  the  end  of  the  world ; 
while  the  state  of  the  impenitent  dead  is 
veiled  in  startling  imagery,  whose  exact 
import  we  cannot  determine. 

There  is  certainly  something  very  sug- 
gestive and  impressive  in  this  silence  and 
in  these  scanty  references.  If  they  do  not 
form  the  staple  of  revelation,  they  certainly 
cannot  properly  be  the  burden  of  our  preach- 
ing.   The  field  surveyed  is  the  earth,  human 


38  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

life  in  its  present  moral  conditions,  capaci- 
ties, and  obligations.  It  is  altogether  an  in- 
ade(|nate  statement  of  the  ease  to  say  that 
the  Bil)le  represents  the  present  earthly 
life  as  the  only  period  of  nioial  prol)ation. 
It  does  more  than  that.  It  deals  with  the 
future  life  only  by  indirection,  as  a  corol- 
lary or  implication  at  most,  while  the  per- 
vading or  overshadowing  emphasis  is  on 
the  life  that  now  is.  The  Old  Testament 
thought  moves,  almost  exclusively,  ^\  itliiu 
the  limits  of  temporal  rewarcis  and  punish- 
ments, tlie  present  blessedness  of  the  man 
of  God,  and  the  shame  which  sliall  surely 
come  over  the  wicked ;  while  in  tlie  New 
Testament  precept  and  promise  bear  a  pre- 
ponderant relation  to  present  godliness. 
Oiu"  current  methods  invert  all  this.  We 
labor  for  revivals,  we  pray  for  the  baptism 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  urge  men  to  come 
to  Christ,  with  our  tlioughts  fixed  upon 
the  grave,  and  upon  the  Avord  of  ho2)e  that 
may  be  spoken  over  the  man  Avhen  he  is 
gone.  We  believe  that  this  A\-orld  is  a  lost 
world,  and  yet  it.s  condenniation  and  ruin 
are  practically  viewed  as  in  suspense,  pro- 
spective calamities  to  be  avoided  and  escaped 
by  fleeing  to  Christ  as  the  appointed  refuge 


PHILOSOPHY  OB'  PREACHING.  39 

from  tlie  coming  wrath.     And  so  we  teach 
and  sing : 

"  While  the  lamp  holds  out  to  bui-n, 
The  vilest  sinner  may  return." 

We  do  not  mean  to  pLace  a  premium 
upon  deathbed  repentances,  we  do  not  mean 
to  encourage  dissoluteness  of  life ;  but  the 
moral  imperative,  demandiiig  immediate 
and  obedient  recognition,  is  shorn  of  its 
majestic  might  by  the  undertone  of  an 
appeal  to  prudential  motives.  Salvation  is 
made  an  affair  of  commercial  barter,  where 
men  pay  a  certain  price  and  secure  a  fut- 
ure gain.  If  prudential  considerations 
must  play  a  part  in  securing  repentance, 
ought  we  not  to  adopt  the  prophetic  and 
apostolic  method,  in  which  the  judgment 
of  God  is  represented  as  in  actual  and  fear- 
ful execution  upon  all  who  repress  the 
truth  in  unrighteousness  ?  It  is  a  personal, 
earthly,  historical  judgment  which  Paul  so 
tersely  outlines  in  his  first  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans.  The  current  pa- 
gan life,  with  its  universal  license,  with  its 
unnatural  crimes,  with  its  degradation  of 
the  home,  with  its  political  cruelty,  law- 
lessness, and  insecurity,  Avas  a  revelation 


40  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PPKACHING. 

of  the  Divine  iiuligiiation,  wlio.se  righteous 
fury  woukl  smite  men  more  and  more  se- 
verely, unless  they  repented  and  ('(.'asLMl 
doing  evil.  Tlie  epistles  are  full  of  the 
homeliest  instructions  and  appeals,  man}- 
of  wliifli  are  disguised  in  our  translation, 
and  which  wc  sliould  hardly  dare  to  rc[)ro- 
duee  in  their  original  ])lainness,  all  of  them 
bearing  upon  the  necessity  of  an  immediate 
and  radical  change  in  the  existing  life. 
The  univei"sal  emphasis  is  on  present  char- 
acter and  condition,  and  a  revival  of  bil> 
lical  preaching  mtist  deal  boldly,  almost 
exclusively,  with  the  mortal  life  of  men. 
Sin  brings  present  disgrace  and  ruin  to 
body  and  soul,  to  home  and  country  :  it 
breeds  distrust,  it  enervates  manhood  and 
womanhood,  it  incites  to  murderous  re- 
venge, it  arrays  class  against  class,  it 
kindles  the  volcanic  iire  of  social  hate,  it 
is  a  menace  to  domestic  peace,  to  social 
order,  and  to  international  amity ;  and  from 
all  this  there  is  salvation  only  by  that  per- 
sonal integrity  and  social  righteousness 
which  are  the  free  gift  of  God  to  men  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  Is  not  that  the  bur- 
den of  ( )ld  'I'estiiineiit  prophecy?  Is  it  not 
tlic    hiTnel  of    llir    I'linline    lou'ic.  wlicli    \)\ 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  41 

an  argument  purely  historical  in  his  great 
epistle,  he  shows  that  the  Gospel  alone  is 
competent  to  do  Avhat  the  wisdom  of  the 
Greek,  and  the  law  of  Moses,  had  failed 
to  accomplish?  The  pierced  hands,  alone 
can  rescue  the  world  out  of  that  abyss 
of  Avoe  into  whose  fathomless  depths  sin 
is  hurling  it  with  an  ever  accelerated  ac- 
tivity. Here  is  your  task  and  mine,  as  it 
was  that  of  prophets  and  apostles  before 
us,  to  make  this  earth  the  abode  of  purity 
and  the  paradise  of  God. 

Look  once  more  into  your  Bibles,  and 
note  that  central  phrase  around  which  all 
its  practical  admonitions  cluster  and  re- 
volve, as  planets  around  the  sun.  In  the 
earliest  biography  of  our  Lord's  life  and 
ministry,  we  are  told  that  Jesus  '"•  came  into 
Galilee  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  saying.  The  time  is  ful- 
filled, and  the  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand, 
repent  ye,  and  believe  the  Gospel."  What 
was  the  Gospel?  It  was  the  glad  tidings 
that  "the  kingdom  of  God"  was  at  hand; 
and  men  were  urged  to  change  their  minds 
and  believe  the  announcement.  They  were 
summoned  to  abandon  their  dream  of  polit- 
ical rule,  and  to  accept  citizenship  in  that 


42  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

moral  empire,  whose  laws  He  expounded, 
and  f)f  which  IIo  clainii'd  to  Ix"  King.  That 
was  the  l)Ui(lcii  of  His  poi-sonal  niinistiy,  as 
it  had  been  lliat  (if  His  tdrciuiiiR'r.  Around 
that  CQUception  of  a  Divine  kinyfdom,  Mat- 
thew weaves  tlie  materials  of  his  (liospel. 
Christ  is  a  Kiiii^.  the  Founder  of  a  new  and 
univei"sal  theocracy.  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  holds  the  same  jjlace  in  ^Matthew's 
sketch,  M  liich  the  book  of  the  law  has  in 
the  Pentateuch.  It  expounds  the  condi- 
tions and  the  duties  of  citizenshi])  in  the 
new  commonwealth.  The  i)aral)les  illus- 
trate its  nature,  its  purifying  power,  its 
ex])anding  energy,  and  its  sifting  processes. 
Tlie  forty  days  between  the  resurrection 
and  tlie  ascension  weie  devoted  to  instruc- 
tions "pertaining  to  the  kingdom  of  God," 
and  the  Ijook  of  Acts  ends  with  the  state- 
ment that  Paul,  upon  liis  arrival  at  Rome, 
gathered  the  chief  of  the  Jews  together, 
and  expounded  to  them,  by  an  appeal  to 
Moses  and  tlie  j»roi)hets,  the  doctrine  of 
Clu'ist,  and  of  ••the  kingdoiii  of  (iod." 

It  was  not  a  m-w  phrase  upon  the  lips  of 
the  liaj)tist:  it  had  been  the  watcliword  of 
]»atience,  and  of  liope.  tliioiigli  many  w faiy 
centuries.     It  Mas  tlie  keyimte  of  jnoplietic 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  43 

warning  and  encouragement,  and  it  meant 
the  rule  of  God  in  all  the  earth,  the  house 
of  the  Lord  becoming  the  resort  of  worship 
for  all  nations.  The  blessing  of  the  cove- 
nant was  to  be  the  heritage  of  all  races  and 
lands.  Against  the  carnal  and  political 
methods  by  which  that  sovereignty  was 
hoped  to  be  secured,  our  Lord  most  ear- 
nestly protested ;  but  he  mustered  his  disci- 
ples under  the  same  banner,  and  summoned 
them  to  the  same  work,  when  He  taught 
them  to  pray,  "  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy 
will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven," 
petitions  which  are  also  promises  and  proph- 
ecies. And  hence  it  was  that  the  apostolic 
emphasis,  in  preaching  and  in  epistle,  was 
ever  upon  the  return  of  Jesus  Christ  in 
power  and  in  glory.  It  was  not  death,  but 
the  second  advent,  upon  which  the  disciples 
fixed  their  gaze.  They  were  busy  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  the  King,  watching  for 
Him  with  trimmed  and  burning  lamps. 
They  Avere  understood  by  many  to  teach 
that  the  final  coming  was  near  at  hand,  and 
the  Church  fell  into  chiliastic  dreams,  from 
which  she  was  rudely  awakened  by  the 
barbarian  invasion  and  the  fall  of  Rome. 
That   opened   for  her  the  path  to  a  new 


44  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

(l()iniiii()ii,  aii<l  iiispiiccl  lici-  willi  the  anil)i- 
tioii  of  universal  empire,  in  securing  and 
consolidating  which  she  freely  employed 
the  methods  of  political  intrigue,  and  the 
agency  of  the  sword.  She  grasped  the 
cro\Mi,  and  burnt  her  preachers.  Luther's 
hammer  Avrecked  the  ambitious  project,  and 
the  last  remnants  of  ecclesiastical  despot- 
ism arc  vanishing.  The  Pope  is  a  prisoner 
in  his  own  palace,  a  stranger  in  his  own 
city,  and  at  any  moment  he  may  be 
an  involuntary  exile.  Rome's  idea  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  has  proved  to  be  as  base- 
less as  the  earlier  fancies.  And  yet,  that 
kingdom  is  the  practical  theme  of  revela- 
tion, the  keynote  of  all  dispensations.  It  is 
not  of  the  world,  and  yet  it  is  to  conquer 
tlie  world.  It  is  not  to  come  with  obser- 
vation, heralded  by  startling  phenomena, 
shaking  thrones  and  convulsino-  nations, 
and  yet  its  advent  is  to  be  with  irresistible 
might.  It  is  lightcousiu'ss,  and  peace,  and 
joy,  in  the  Holy  CJhost.  That  is  the  ad- 
vent upon  which  the  gaze  of  eveiy  disci- 
ple is  to  be  fixed,  and  wliose  hastening 
should  enlist  the  preaclier's  zeal. 

In  a  word,  the  hlHtorical  ir'nnnph  of  Cliris- 
tianity  is  the  iinnu'diatc  and  practical  result 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  45 

designed  to  be  attained  by  tbe  preaching  of 
the  Gospel.  We  make  the  world's  evan- 
gelization, the  discipling  of  all  nations,  in- 
cidental and  subordinate ;  it  is,  in  reality, 
supreme  and  exclusive.  The  present  pro- 
saic earth  is  the  territory  which  we  are 
summoned  to  subdue  to  the  obedience  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Here,  where  sin  threw  down 
the  gauge  of  battle  and  made  man  an  exile 
from  Paradise,  the  conflict  is  to  be  fought 
out  to  its  bitter  end,  until  Eden  comes  back 
with  a  fairer  and  a  perennial  beauty.  What 
socialism  blindly  aims  at  through  revolu- 
tionary and  anarchial  measures,  Chris- 
tianity is  fitted  and  destined  to  accomplish 
for  man.  The  cry  of  the  poor  is  to  be 
answered.  Every  burden  is  to  be  loosed, 
every  yoke  of  oppression  is  to  be  broken. 
Ignorance  is  to  be  supplanted  by  the  wis- 
dom whose  beginning  is  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.  Drunkenness  is  to  be  exterminated, 
and  Sabbath  desecration  is  to  cease.  The 
monster  of  lust  is  to  be  cast  into  the  bottom- 
less pit.  The  meek  are  to  inherit  the  earth. 
The  idolatries  and  cruelties  of  Paganism 
are  to  be  swept  away.  And  all  this  is  to 
be  done,  not  by  repressive  and  punitive 
legislation,  but  by  the  expansive  and  con- 


46  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

quering  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  enter- 
ing into  individual  souls,  through  faith  in 
^/^esus  Clnist  as  He  is  revealed  in  the  Gospel. 
That  is  only  a  means  to  an  end,  an  epi- 
sode in  a  larger  history.  Beyond  it  lie  the 
day  of  judgment  and  the  eternal  years, 
with  their  unfolding  story  which  God  has 
reserved  to  Himself.  The  philosophy  of 
mortal  history  is  all  that  has  been  disclosed 
to  us,  and  that  we  have  been  slow  to  mas- 
ter. We  have  been  more  curious  than  con- 
secrated. Whatever  mighty  results  the 
volume  of  the  future  may  contain,  the 
introductory  chapter  concerns  the  present 
conquest  of  humanity  to  righteousness, 
until  the  wilderness  shall  blossom  as  the 
rose,  and  the  lion  and  the  lamb  shall  lie 
down  in  j^eace  together.  Earth  is  the 
battle  ground  of  the  eternities,  and  moral 
forces  are  to  determine  tlie  issue  of  the 
encounter. 
~r  This  conception  makes  the  Christian 
pulpit  a  living,  burning,  per})etual  need. 
The  vocation  of  the  jjreacher  is  seen  to 
stand  in  organic  relation  to  the  develop- 
ment of  human  history.  He  l)lazes  the 
way  to  the  appointed  goal,  and  marshals 
the  growing  and  victorious  battalions  along 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  47 

the  widening  highway.  This  is  the  vision 
of  prophets  and  apostles,  of  Daniel  in  idola- 
trous Babylon,  and  of  John  in  the  isle  of 
Patmos.  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
to  become  the  kingdom  of  our  God,  and  of 
His  Christ,  and  He  is  to  reign  forever  and 
ever.  It  requires  no  ordinary  faith  to  be- 
lieve this.  It  demands  no  ordinary  courage 
to  confess  it  in  the  face  of  doubt  and  denial. 
It  seems  fihimerical.  The  pessimistic  esti- 
mate of  the  world's  future  is  more  congenial 
to  the  reigning  temper.  It  is  so  much  easier 
to  wait  for  a  catastrophe,  than  to  convert 
the  world  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching. 
We  get  weary  of  the  strain,  and  long  for 
the  descending  fire,  the  advent  of  our  Lord. 
But  He  is  here.  His  banners  are  unfurled, 
and  He  bids  us  unite  with  the  Sword  of  the 
Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of  God.  This, 
then,  I  conceive  to  be  the  Scriptural  theory 
of  the  Christian  preacher's  vocation,  the 
Divine  philosophy  of  his  commission,  the 
reconstruction  of  humanity,  the  historical 
triumph  of  Christianity  in  all  the  earth. 

I  am  aware  that  such  an  interpretation 
of  the  final  cause  of  preaching  will  seem, 
at  first  inspection,  to  divest  it  of  any  special 
Divine  significance,  and  to  reduce  it  to  a 


48  rillLOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

very  ordinary  agency  for  securing  moral 
improvement.  The  peculiar  idea  of  re- 
demption seems  to  be  eliminated,  and  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  appeai-s  to  be  re- 
duced to  an  inference,  which  might  as  well 
be  explicitly  ignored.  But  neither  of  these 
inferences  is  logically  involved  in  the  doc- 
trine here  propounded  and  defended.  Tlie 
matter  of  preaching  remains  exactly  the 
same,  in  its  essential  basis,  and  in  the  logi- 
cal order  of  its  separate  doctrines.  The 
supernatural  revelation  of  God  for  the 
redemption  of  man,  culminating  in  the  per- 
son and  mediation  of  our  Lord,  and  con- 
tinued through  the  personal  ministry  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  is  assumed  and  most  ear- 
nestly maintained.  The  profound  biblical 
conceptions  of  sin,  and  law,  and  atonement, 
and  regeneration,  are  not  divested  of  their 
supernatural  import,  and  relegated  to  the 
vocabulary  of  natiu-al  ethics.  I  am  not 
pleading  for  another  Gospel,  nor  for  a  new 
and  attenuated  version  of  the  old  Gospel, 
but  for  such  a  use  of  it  as  shall  deal  with 
man  as  lie  is,  and  shall  secure  his  present 
redemption  from  the  power  and  pollution 
of  sin.  Use  the  same  lifle,  powder,  and  ball, 
but  aim  low.     I  liave  no  conlidence  in  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  49 

preaching  which  confines  itself  to  the  expo- 
sition of  ethical  maxims,  which  nrges  men 
to  avoid  falsehood  and  vice  on  the  ground 
of  the  constitutional  dignity  of  human 
nature,  which  does  not  introduce  tlie  mo- 
tives growing  out  of  a  veritable  Divine 
intervention,  and  wliich  ignores  the  sanc- 
tions of  the  Divine  judgment ;  for  upon 
such  a  view,  Socrates  and  Confucius  are 
older,  and  so  far,  better  authorities  than 
Jesus  Christ.  For  all  literature  has  its 
tragic  undertone,  and  the  altar  is  every- 
where the  confession  of  sin,  and  a  memorial 
of  fear.  Man  needs  Divine  redemption. 
Something  must  be  done  for  him.  Hu- 
manity must  be  rescued  by  the  hand  of 
God,  as  well  as  startled  by  His  voice  and 
welcomed  to  His  heart.  It  must  be  born 
from  above.  Its  prison  doors  mast  be 
broken,  its  manacles  must  be  melted,  the 
tide  of  death  must  be  checked  and  reversed 
in  the  prisoner's  veins.  Reformation  will 
not  answer ;  it  only  administers  anodynes, 
whose  only  effect  is  to  retard  for  a  season 
the  inevitable  collapse.  Socrates  did  not 
save  Greece ;  the  Stoics  did  not  save  Rome ; 
Confucius  and  Sakya-Mouni  have  not  saved 
China  and  India.     Ethical  injunctions  will 


50  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

not  save  man ;  the  experiment  has  been 
widely  tried,  and  it  has  always  been  a  sad 
and  conspicuous  failure.  Plumanity  needs 
a  Redeemer,  an  historical  and  personal 
descent  of  the  living  God  into  the  stream 
of  its  poisoned  life,  if  that  life  is  to  be 
cleansed  and  sweetened.  And  this  is  the 
burden  of  the  Gospel,  that  God  was  in 
Christ  reconciling  tlie  world  unto  Himself. 
That  was  more  than  a  roi)ublication  of  the 
moral  law.  It  ^^'as  more  than  the  I'evela- 
tion  of  God's  universal  Fatherhood.  Love 
wins  and  conquers  by  what  it  does,  not  by 
what  it  says,  and  the  glad  tidings  of  the 
New  Testament  are  in  what  Jesus  Christ  did 
for  men,  and  in  the  abiding  energy  of  that 
work.  The  pierced  hands  are  no  myth, 
the  broken  heart  is  no  accident,  the  open 
grave  is  no  poetic  fancy.  They  reveal 
much ;  they  have  achieved,  and  are  achiev- 
ing more.  The  air  is  not  more  indispensa- 
ble to  physical  life  than  is  Jesus  Christ  to 
man's  redemption.  jNIy  aim  has  been  to  set 
forth  the  tremendous  realism  of  the  eternal 
priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ,  its  profound 
historical  necessity,  and  its  design  as  a  his- 
torical fact,  to  produce  a  dclinitc  historical 
result,  —  the  redemption  of  man. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  51 

Nor,  under  this  conception  of  the  x)reach- 
er's  vocation,  is  man  to  be  treated  as  the  crea- 
ture of  time.     That  would  be  an  irrational 
procedure,  for  the  simple  reason  that  man's 
spirit  bears  the  image  of  God,  and  is  there- 
fore immortal  in  its  essential  constitution. 
You  must  address  him  as  the  child  and  heir 
of   eternity;  only  you  need  to    remember 
that  the  eternity  which  thus  crowns  him  is 
not  prospective  merely,  Ijut  present.     All 
that  he  does  and  is  has  eternal  significance. 
It  is  unending  in  duration  of  effect,  because 
it  is  eternal  in  present  quality.     It  is  an 
unscriptural  distinction  which  limits  time 
to  the  present  and  eternity  to  the  future. 
The  present  moment  is  all  that  has  reality, 
and  time  and  eternity  are    only  different 
faces  of  the  NOW.     "  The  things  that  are 
seen  are  temporal,  the  things  that  are  not 
seen  are  eternal,"  says  the  great   apostle. 
And    everywhere,    at    every   moment,  the 
seen  and   the   unseen  confront  us.     They 
meet  in  our  composite  personality ;  the  vis- 
ible body  is  temporal,  the  invisible  soul  is 
eternal.     They  balance  and  interpenetrate 
each  other  in  what  we  call  the  universe ; 
so  far  as  it  is  visible,  it  is  temporal  and 
changing,  but  its  invisible  energy,  as  rooted 


52  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRKArillXC. 

in  the  will  <>t  llie  Living  God,  is  iiiunutablc, 
constant,  flcrnal.  That  is  tlie  Pauline  dis- 
tinction, and  it  embodies  the  j^i'ofoundest 
pliilosophy.  He  does  not  say  that  the  vis- 
ible is  unreal,  nor  does  lie  say  that  the  in- 
visible is  ideal ;  he  is  neither  an  idealist 
nor  a  materialist.  The  visible  and  the  in- 
visibh' are  c(Hially  real ;  Paul  speaks  as  a 
natural  dualist.  Hut  the  invisible  is  the 
root  of  the  visible.  It  is  the  innnutable, 
constant,  eternal  |)riii(i])lr  of  tlie  changing 
and  transient,  ^\'herever  tlu'  invisible  is, 
there  is  the  eternal :  and  if  there  be  an 
omnipresent,  invisible  God,  eternity  is  con- 
densed into  every  flying  minute.  Every 
conscious,  responsible  soul  holds  the  awful 
secret  in  its  grasp.  In  virtue  of  its  consti- 
tutional iclalionship  to  (iod,  and  in  virtue 
of  its  natural  sonshij),  its  ])resi'nt  attitude 
and  action  are  invested  with  eti'rnal  signi- 
ficance, lumiortality  is  not  eliiniiiated,  but 
it  is  traced  to  its  living  root,  in  the  invisible 
spirit,  and  eternity  shows  its  majestic  face 
behind  the  thin  veil  of  time. 

The  truth  is  that  our  jjliilosophy  of  mor- 
tal life  has  been  altogether  too  meagre. 
Our  estimate  of  history  has  been  singularly 
inadeijuate.      We    have    bi-eii    disposed   to 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  53 

regard  the  present  life  as  full  onl}'  of 
vanity,  as  indeed  it  is  to  him  who  uses 
it  mainly  for  eating,  drinking,  getting  rieh 
and  being  merry.  We  have  rattled  the 
skeleton  in  men's  faces.  We  have  taken 
our  practical  theology  from  Ecclesiastes, 
instead  of  from  the  Gospel  of  John.  But 
now  is  the  acce[)ted  time,  noiv  is  the  day  of 
salvation.  The  air  is  full  of  sunshine  and 
song.  The  last  days  are  upon  us,  in  which 
God  has  spoken  to  us  by  His  Son,  and  set 
up  His  tabernacle  among  men.  The  future 
has  no  dignity  which  does  not  fill  each 
passing  hour,  and  eternity  is  the  pulse,  the 
throbbing  heart,  of  time.  And,  therefore, 
the  present  life  is  not  a  temporary  scaffold- 
ing, a  period  of  moral  })rol)ation,  Ijut  the 
deep  and  broad  foundation  which  God  is 
laying  by  human  hands  for  the  temple  of 
His  building;  and  the  history,  slowly  syl- 
labling itself  in  the  world's  redemption,  is 
the  first  and  formative  chapter  in  the  glo- 
rious records  of  the  future.  Present  life 
alid  present  history  are  eternal,  of  intrin- 
sic and  imperishable  worth.  To  save  men, 
then,  in  their  mortal  bodies,  and  to  sub- 
due the  earth  unto  righteousness,  through 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  is  to  give  to 


54  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

eternity  its  living  place  in  the   annals  of 
time. 

For  more  than  ten  years  I  liave  rested  in 
this  conclusion,  and  each  review  has  only 
confirmed  my  confidence  in  its  correctness. 
It  has  given  me  poise  and  gladness  amid 
the  eschatological  discussions  whii-h  have 
disturbed  our  theological  schools,  and 
which  have  man-ed  the  peace  of  our  mis- 
sionary gatherings.  I  have  felt  that  I  had 
other  work  to  do  than  to  frame  theories  as 
to  how  God  would  deal  with  those  who 
have  never  heard  the  Gos])el.  I  do  not 
know  what  lie  will  do  witli  tliose  who 
hear  the  Gospel  from  my  lips.  The  rejec- 
tion of  my  message  may  not  involve  their 
eternal  perdition.  I  am  not  the  organ  of 
God's  retributive  justice,  and  I  would  not 
be  for  ten  thousand  worlds.  The  inter- 
mediate state  is  a  terra  incognita^  on  which 
I  have  ceased  to  speculate,  simply  because 
human  reason  is  incompetent  to  conduct 
the  debate  to  any  certain  issue,  and  because 
the  Scriptures  liave  not  been  made  the  ve- 
hicle of  any  revelation  on  the  subject. 
The  dead  are  in  God's  hands,  where  Ave 
should  l)e  both  conti'ut  and  glad  to  leave 
them;     the    living    millions    are    on    your 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING.  55 

hands  and  mine,  and  tliey  slionld  burden 
our  hearts.  Surely,  on  this  ground  we  can 
clasp  hands,  and  push  to  the  utmost  the 
energies  of  Christian  activity,  until  their 
widening  lines  shall  compass  all  the  na- 
tions. Until  then,  the  Christian  pulpit 
must  remain  as  the  mightiest  of  conserva- 
tive moral  forces,  and  as  the  most  potent 
of  all  aggressive  regenerating  agencies. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  theory  of  preach- 
ing unites  the  evangelistic  and  evolutional 
conceptions  in  a  higher,  single,  comprehen- 
sive formula.  It  agrees  with  the  evange- 
listic in  recognizing  this  world  as  a  lost 
world,  as  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  as 
exposed  to  imminent  and  eternal  judgment, 
as  summoned  in  these  last  days  to  immedi- 
ate repentance,  and  requiring  that  renewing 
and  sanctifying  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  is  connected  with  an  obedient  faith 
in  the  Gospel,  for  its  rescue.  It  does  not 
ignore  the  individual  in  the  universality 
of  its  outlook.  It  accentuates  personal 
responsibility.  It  paints  sin  in  the  darkest 
colors.  It  maintains  the  majesty  of  moral 
law.  It  knoAvs  only  Christ  and  Him  cruci- 
fied, as  the  sinner's  hope  of  pardon  and 
purity.     It  addresses  each  man  as  an  im- 


56  PIIILOSOI'IIY   OF  PREACHINO. 

mortal  lu'iiii^r,  and  invests  every  iiioral 
choice  with  eternal  significance.  It  does 
not  soothe  with  unfounded  hojies.  It  urges 
to  immediate  and  decided  action.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  agrees  Avith  the  evolutional 
or  educational  theory  of  the  sermon  hy 
recognizing  that  the  Incarnation  was  a 
historical  crisis,  that  the  Resurrection  was 
a  historical  victory,  and  that  the  ]\Iediato- 
rial  Reign  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  historical 
process.  The  present  life  of  man  is  to  l)e 
sanctified  and  sweetened,  and  the  whole 
earth  is  to  be  made  the  abode  of  piety  and 
peace.  That  eternal  issues  are  involved 
in  the  process,  no  thoughtful  man,  who 
reverently  reads  his  Bible,  can  for  a  mo- 
ment doubt,  and  must  be  assumed  on  the 
ground  of  the  soul's  indestructible  being 
and  the  absolute  authority  of  moral  law ; 
nor  can  these  considerations  be  eliminated 
from  the  message  which  (lie  pidpit  must 
deliver  ;  but  the  immediate  olgect  of  attain- 
ment nuist  ])e  the  present  conversion  of  men 
to  holiness  of  life,  byfaiili  in  Jesus  Christ. 
This  will  give  living  unity  to  the  sermon, 
and  cannot  fail  to  imj)ress  the  preacher 
A\ilh  a  i)rofound  conviction  of  the  historical 
necessity  and  importance  of  his  vocation. 


THE   PERSONAL   ELEMENT   IN 
PREACHING. 

"  Know  thyself,"  was  the  short,  pithy 
sentence  into  which  the  best  Greek  thought 
compressed  its  practical  wisdom.  This 
constitutes  the  problem  of  a  sound  philoso- 
phy, and  it  is  indispensable  to  genuine 
oratorical  power.  For  it  is  not  the  word 
which  holds  the  subtle,  conquering  energy, 
but  the  thought  which  the  word  aims  to 
carry,  and  thought  comes  with  its  mightiest 
force  only  when  the  soul  is  stirred  to  its 
profoundest  depths,  is  roused  in  the  com- 
pass of  all  its  powers,  and  thrusts  itself 
forward  with  eager  and  hastening  step. 
Language  is  only  the  vehicle  of  thought, 
and  thought  is  the  mind  in  conscious  ac- 
tion. If  words  are  to  burn  their  way, 
thought  must  be  at  white  heat,  and  the 
soul  must  be  on  fire.  We  preach  to  per- 
suade men,  and  the  secret  of  persuasion  is 

57 


58  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHIXG. 

the  impact  of  soul  upon  soul,  in  which 
obscurity  is  (nercome  by  clearness,  and 
doubt  by  faith,  and  narrowness  by  breadth, 
and  fancies  by  facts,  and  partiality  by  com- 
prehension, and  hesitation  by  decision. 
As  a  rule,  audiences  are  more  responsive 
tJian  sympathetic.  Often  thc}^  are  cold 
and  critical,  if  not  positively  hostile. 
When  at  their  best,  they  wait  to  be  moved, 
and  they  can  be  powerfully  and  perma- 
nently moved  only  by  words  that  convey 
strong  personal  conviction,  and  provoke 
an  instant  affirmative  response.  Whether 
we  like  it  or  not,  whether  we  justify  the 
attitude,  or  condemn  it,  the  hearer  need 
not  be  expected  to  surrender  in  advance. 
Preaching  is  always  an  athletic  contest,  a 
close  grappling  and  serious  wrestle,  and 
whether  the  result  shall  be  conquest,  or 
defeat,  or  a  drawn  battle,  will  depend  upon 
the  perfect  command  the  preacher  has  of 
his  thoughts  and  of  himself.  The  sword 
must  grow  to  his  hands,  must  be  double- 
edged,  and  he  must  be  master  in  its  use. 
The  soul  in  you  nuist  make  the  souls  of 
your  hearers  captive.  You  must  speak 
with  authority ;  not  the  authority  of  self- 
conceit,  nor  that  of  paraded  learning,  nor 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT.  59 

that  of  ecclesiastical  decisions,  but  the 
authority  which  accompanies  personal  cer- 
titude. 

This  is  the  only  personal  element  which 
has  any  legitimate  place  in  the  theory 
of  preaching,  and  without  it  preaching  is 
emptied  of  its  persuasive  power.  All  else 
is  subsidiary  and  incidental,  peculiar  to  the 
individual,  whether  the  peculiarity  be  physi- 
cal, or  mental,  or  rhetorical.  Individuality 
and  personality  are  not  equivalents  in  mean- 
ing. The  individual  is  the  limited,  the  par- 
tial, the  changing;  the  personal  is  the 
essential,  the  inclusive,  the  permanent.  It 
is  the  fixed,  intelligent  certitude  of  soul, 
rooted  in  that  knowledge  of  self  which  is 
the  outcome  of  a  personal  testing  of  Divine 
truth,  which  constitutes  the  unfailing  and 
inexhaustible  source  of  moral  power  in  the 
preacher.  The  Gospel  must  be  in  him,  a 
well  of  water  springing  into  everlasting 
life,  untouched  by  drought  or  frost,  refresh- 
ing his  own  spirit,  and  quenching  the  thirst 
of  others.  If  any  of  you  entertain  the 
notion  that  anything  can  be  a  substitute  for 
this,  a  ministry  of  ten  years  will  strip  you 
of  the  illusion. 

I  want  to  make  a  tlii'eefold  application 


60  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

of  this  principle  :  first,  to  the  physical  con- 
dition of  the  preaelier ;  then,  to  his  devo- 
tional temper  •  and  finall}^  to  his  rhetorical 
cultnre. 

Onr  age  is  an  age  of  physical  culture. 
Tlie  gymnasium  crowds  hard  upon  the 
lecture-room.  ]\Iuscle  enters  into  competi- 
tion with  scholarship  in  our  lialls  of  learn- 
ing. Within  certain  limits  tlie  tendency 
is  a  sound  and  liealthy  one.  For  the  in- 
telligent care  of  the  body  is  a  religious 
duty ;  and  conscientiousness  is  sadly  de- 
ficient when  it  permits  the  habitual  dis- 
regard of  hygienic  laws.  Sickliness  is  not 
an  evidence  of  saintliness;  a  pale  face  is 
not  prima  facie  evidence  of  power ;  and  a 
sturdy,  vigorous  frame  is  not  the  sign  of 
animalism.  But  there  is  need  of  remem- 
bering that  the  l)ody  is  not  the  measure  of 
the  soul,  that  insignificance  and  weakness 
may  liide  a  giant  frame,  and  exceptional 
force  may  dwell  in  a  frail  body.  This 
needs  no  proof.  You  will  recall  Reniard 
and  Calvin  and  Kant  and  Paul.  We  have 
all  seen  men  of  imposing  presence,  for 
whom  our  reverence  vanished  as  soon  as 
lliey  (i]tened  their  lips:  while  others  bound 
us  tn  tliciii  as  by  links  of  steel,  whose  [tlivs- 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT.  61 

ical  insignificance  provoked  onr  laughter 
or  compassion.  Even  the  ancient  proverb 
of  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body  needs 
serious  qualification ;  for  history  abounds 
in  instances  of  men  whose  mental  sanity 
and  moral  power  have  suffered  no  appre- 
ciable hindrance  from  constitutional  and 
physical  infirmities.  There  is  danger  here, 
as  everywhere  else,  of  hasty  generalization, 
from  a  partial  induction  of  facts.  The 
truth  is  more  nearly  this,  that  thorough- 
going rectitude  involves  reverence  for  all 
law,  physical  or  moral,  human  or  Divine. 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  all  law  is  moral 
and  Divine,  universally  and  eternally  obli- 
gatory, ignorance  of  which  is  blamable,  and 
violation  of  which  is  sin.  It  is  your  busi- 
ness to  understand  your  body,  as  much  as 
it  is  your  business  to  understand  your  soul. 
It  is  as  much  your  duty  to  watch  over  and 
care  for  your  body,  as  it  is  to  save  your 
soul.  Christ  came  to  redeem  them  both, 
and  you  may  not  do  less  than  fall  into  line 
with  Him. 

Here  I  place  the  emphasis,  upon  an  intel- 
ligent, conscientious,  reverent  care  of  the 
body,  not  upon  its  native  vigor,  least  of 
all  upon  the  magnitude  of  its  proportions. 


62  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

You  are  not  responsible  for  either  height 
or  weight.  You  cannot  add  to  your  stat- 
ure. You  cannot  change  the  color  of  your 
eyes  or  hair.  And  some  of  you  will  have 
a  perpetual  contest  with  inherited  and  con- 
stitutional infirmities.  There  is  one  thing 
you  can  do,  are  morally  bound  to  do,  have 
an  intelligent  care  for  the  body  which  is 
yours.  You  can  put  your  personal  integ- 
rity into  your  mortal  flesh.  You  can  pay 
the  debt  which,  under  God,  you  owe  to 
brain,  and  lungs,  and  stomach.  You  can 
eat,  drink,  and  sleep,  to  the  glory  of  God. 
Don't  discount  these  bills.  Pay  them 
promptly,  gladly ;  and  pay  a  hundred 
cents  on  a  dollar.  You  will  not  understand 
me  to  advocate  self-indulgence  ;  but  sucli 
an  intelligent  oversiglit  as  the  owner  of 
horses  would  give  to  the  animals  in  his  sta- 
bles. It  is  the  moral  element  in  physical 
culture  which  is  of  universal  obligation  ; 
and  it  is  here  that  the  principle  applies  that 
he  only  who  is  faithful  in  the  least  can  be 
faitliful  in  the  highest.  Conscientiousness 
admits  of  no  exceptions.  Financial  honesty 
is  a  matter  of  pennies.  Veracity  does  not 
permit  lying  in  little  things.  Art  does  not 
disdain  exactness  in  trifles.     .Viid  it  is,  in 


THE  PERSONAL   ELEMENT.  63 

the  very  nature  of  things,  impossible  for  a 
man  to  treat  his  body  with  systematic  neg- 
ligence or  disregard,  without  suffering  in 
mental  sanity  and  moral  power.  The  whole 
history  of  asceticism  proves  this.  Fastings, 
and  vigils,  and  flagellations  unhinged  the 
mind,  filling  it  with  vagaries  and  dreams, 
sapping  its  normal  strength,  and  undermin- 
ing its  moral  power.  The  personal  integ- 
rity, therefore,  the  stern  and  habitual  fidel- 
ity to  self,  which  is  the  secret  of  moral 
energy,  must  extend  its  sovereignty  over 
the  province  of  the  body,  and  guard  it 
from  needless  waste. 

What  I  have  said  about  the  care  of  the 
body  is  also  true  of  style,  and  of  all  those 
minor  proprieties  which  have  to  do  with  the 
conduct  of  public  worship.  Genuineness 
and  simple  heartiness  are  the  charm  of  all 
speech,  the  beauty  of  all  services.  The 
Christian  preacher  should  be  a  gentleman ; 
that  is,  a  man  who  is  moved  by  a  genuine 
respect  for  all  that  is,  and  who  is  so  true 
that  he  cannot  treat  sacred  things  with 
levity,  nor  conduct  the  worship  of  God  in 
a  slovenly  manner.  Many  years  ago,  in 
my  church,  I  had  a  blunt  old  Irishman. 
He  was  a  diamond  in  the  rouo-h.     He  was 


64  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

very  poor,  but  not  a  beggar.  He  was  un- 
educated, l)ut  lie  knew  his  Bible.  lie  was 
without  polish,  ignorant  of  social  etiquette, 
but  he  was  the  soul  of  courtesy  and  polite- 
ness, unassuming  and  catholic.  He  told 
me  once  that  lie  always  put  on  liis  coat  be- 
fore he  conducted  family  prayers.  It  was 
a  little  tiling,  but  it  meant  a  great  deal.  I 
do  not  suppose  that  it  would  have  been  a 
sin  for  him  to  pray  in  his  shirt  sleeves;  but 
he  felt  that  God  was  entitled  to  the  same 
forms  of  respectful  a[)proacli  which  he 
would  have  scrupulously  observed  in  call- 
ing upon  his  friends.  He  was  simply  true 
to  the  inherent  fitness  of  things,  and  that 
is  the  soul  of  courtesy  and  refinement. 

Hence  even  the  personal  habits  and  dress 
of  the  minister  are  worthy  of  his  attention. 
He  has  no  business  to  be  slovenly  and  vul- 
gar. I  recently  listened  to  two  distinguished 
scholars  who  occupy  important  chairs  in 
the  University  of  Berlin.  One  appeared 
in  rusty  garments  and  soiled  linen,  while 
he  di'oned  away  in  a  lifeless  fashion  for 
nearly  an  hour.  The  sight  roused  in  me 
an  instinctive  resentment.  I  felt  that  his 
ap])earance  was  an  insult  to  his  beard's, 
and  that  it  betokened  a  want  of  self-respect, 


THE  rERSONAL  ELEMENT.  65 

however  far  these  things  may  have  been 
present  to  his  conscions  thought.  They 
ought  to  have  been  present  to  him.  There 
is  an  everhisting  incongruity  between  great 
learning  and  dirty  coUars.  The  other  man 
held  an  equally  high  rank  in  scholarship, 
but  he  Avas  dressed  in  faultless  taste.  His 
neck  was  clean,  his  linen  was  immaculate. 
His  beard  was  closely  cropped  and  care- 
fully brushed,  his  coat  was  closely  buttoned. 
He  was  "a  gentleman  and  a  scholar." 
There  was  nothing  foppish  aliout  him ;  he 
was  simply  a  clean,  wholesome  man,  who 
had  a  keen  perception  of  the  fitness  of 
things.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  look  at  him, 
and  he  spoke  as  he  looked,  with  freedom, 
exactness,  and  fiery  animation. 

Now,  there  is  an  artificial  cultivation  of 
manners.  It  infects  the  tone,  the  attitude, 
the  dress.  The  elocution  becomes  pom- 
pous. The  dress  becomes  prescribed  and 
official.  Mannerism  is  the  worst  of  man- 
ners. When  primary  or  undue  attention 
is  given  to  the  form,  the  life  suffers  and 
shrivels.  And  yet,  to  be  perfectly  natu- 
ral, observing  always  that  outward  deco- 
rum which  befits  the  occasion,  demands  the 
severest   and  most  unremitting   self-disci- 


66  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

pline.  It  requires  the  culture  of  the  heart, 
until  the  spirit  in  you  obtains  such  clear- 
ness of  vision,  such  intensity  of  grasp,  such 
an  intuitive  perception  of  what  the  occa- 
sion requires,  such  a  fixed  purpose  to  meet 
every  emergency  as  it  arises,  that  the  pro- 
prieties will  almost  take  care  of  themselves, 
as  fragrance  radiates  from  the  rose  and  light 
from  the  sun.  Keep  the  central  fires  burn- 
ing. I  know  that  my  remed}-  is  a  severe 
and  searching  one,  and  I  confess  that  it  is 
easier  to  preach  than  to  practise ;  but  I 
confidently  appeal  to  you  whether  I  am 
not  right.  It  is  in  the  conduct  of  worship, 
as  with  godliness ;  you  can  have  the  form 
without  the  power,  but  you  cannot  have 
the  power  without  its  appropriate  form, 
and  where  the  power  is  perfect  the  form 
will  be  perfect.  All  beauty  comes  from 
life,  and  all  vigorous  life  builds  in  lines  of 
beauty. 

There  is,  probably,  no  part  of  public 
worship  and  of  pastoral  duty  which  is  so 
trying  as  that  of  prayer.  At  the  bedside, 
at  funerals,  on  the  Lord's  day,  the  prayer 
is  the  minister's  most  arduous  service.  He 
soon  discovers  that  ])re})aration  is  indis- 
pensable, unless  a  dead  and  dry  formality 


THE  PERSONAL   ELEMENT.  67 

shall  be  permitted  to  eat  out  of  him  all 
elements  of   fresh  and   forcible    devotion. 
But  how  shall  he  prepare  himself  ?     Shall 
he  use  regular  forms,  hallowed  by  antiquity, 
made  precious  by  association,  or  shall  he 
write  out  his  prayers,  and  commit  them  to 
memory?     Both  methods  have  been  recom- 
mended, and  we  cannot  condemn  them  as 
wrong,  so  long  as  they  give  free    flow  to 
spiritual  devotion.     Much  may  be  gained 
from  the  study  of  liturgies.     The  prayers 
composed  by  great  and  saintly  men  may 
give  a  deeper  tone  to  our  petitions,  and  a 
wider  range  to    our   supplicatory  speech. 
Certainly  the  psalms  cannot  safely  be  neg- 
lected, and  it  may  be  well  sometimes  to 
make  the  pen  the  instrument  of  devotion, 
that  golden  apples  may  gleam  in  a  frame- 
work of  silver.     But  mechanism  must  be 
avoided.     That  is  the  death  of  devotion, 
and  they  who  use  written  forms  need  ever- 
more to  pass  them  through  the  fiery  cruci- 
ble of  personal  brooding,  until  they  glow 
and  burn  again.     You  must  retreat  within 
yourself.     You  must   feel  the   burden   of 
your    own    wants,    your    blindness,    your 
weakness,  your  sin.     You  must  make  the 
sorrows  of  others  your  own,  and  see  in  the 


68  PHILOSOPnY  OF  PREACHING. 

dead  face  your  own  mother  or  babe.  Then 
the  tiniest  hands  will  open  the  flood-gates 
of  your  sympath}-.  You  must  imj)ersonate 
the  throng,  the  aged,  the  mature,  the  young, 
hearts  that  are  glad,  and  hearts  that  are 
crushed ;  men  and  women  who  are  unmur- 
muring and  patient,  and  others  who  are 
hard  and  rebellious;  and  then,  with  the 
vision  of  an  omniscient  and  loving  Father 
mastering  your  own  soul,  you  will  pray. 
It  is  a  task  from  which  we  shrink ;  it  in- 
volves a  long  retreat  and  a  wide  disper- 
sion, a  falling  back  upon  the  living  centre 
of  })ersonal  life,  whence  alone  sympathy 
radiates  into  the  universal  and  Divine ; 
but  when  you  have  accom})lished  the  ardu- 
ous task,  and  the  full  stream  of  human  want 
courses  through  your  spirit,  the  coal  of  fire 
will  lie  upon  your  lips.  Let  us  hear  once 
more  the  words  of  the  Master :  "When 
thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and 
when  thoii  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy 
Father  which  is  in  secret."  That  is  the 
law  of  all  prayer.  Every  man  finds  God 
where  Augustine  foiuid  him  —  within  him- 
self. Retreat  then  within  yourself,  and 
your  prayer  will  bring  the  lieavens  near. 
The  secret  of  devotion  is  tlic  secret  of  a 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT.  69 

forcible  style.  There  is  a  higher  teacher 
than  text-books  on  rhetoric  and  logic.  You 
do  well  to  master  these,  but  if  you  let  them 
master  you,  your  most  careful  composition 
will  lack  the  intensest  vitality.  You  must 
liave  your  own  style  and  logic.  And  by 
that  I  do  not  mean  such  petty  idiosyncra- 
sies as  some  men  assiduously  cultivate, 
mistaking  singularity  for  originality,  but 
simple  and  thorough-going  harmony  be- 
tAveen  your  thought  and  its  form.  Do  not 
overlay  it  with  factitious  adornment.  Too 
many  jewels  are  offensive.  Preach  as  you 
would  talk  to  a  friend  on  the  theme  of 
which  you  are  full.  Elevated  thought  will 
weave  its  own  royal  robes.  Strong  thought 
will  always  flash  out  in  terse  phrases. 
There  is  a  mechanical  and  a  vital  use  of 
language.  It  becomes  a  mechanical  instru- 
ment when  the  primary  attention  is  fixed 
upon  words  and  phrases ;  and  then  it  is  no 
more  than  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling 
cymbal.  It  l^ecomes  a  vital  organ  when 
the  only  care  is  that  the  thought  shall  have 
clear  and  pungent  expression,  and  then  it 
speeds  to  its  mark  like  a  bullet  from  a 
Minie-rifle.  That  which  you  elaborate 
within    the    inmost    centre,    and    is    then 


70  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

clothed  in  tlio  language  wliidi  meanwhile 
has  taken  shape,  Avill  be  remembered  by 
you  both  in  substance  and  form  with  the 
greatest  ease,  and  will  ])e  uttered  b)'  you 
with  all  the  energy  of  natural  fervor.  The 
failure  of  severely  and  systematically  doing 
this  explains,  in  my  judgment,  more  than 
anything  else,  the  dil'Hculty  which  so  many 
ministei's  experience  in  speaking  without 
the  use  of  manuscript.  The  sermon  is 
thought  out  during  the  process  of  composi- 
tion. It  should  have  been  tliought  out  be- 
fore a  line  was  written.  There  is  too  wide 
a  chasm  between  the  thought  and  the  lan- 
guage. The  manuscript  is  too  mechanical 
a  product ;  it  is  not  the  free  and  natural 
utterance  of  the  burning  tliought.  The 
style  is  full  of  strain  and  labor,  and,  if  the 
sermon  so  composed  should  be  committed 
to  memory,  and  then  preached,  everybody 
would  detect  the  incongruity.  Such  ser- 
pions  must  be  read,  for  a  free  style  cannot  be 
elaborate.  You  must  preach  as  you  think, 
and  as  you  \\  (tuld  speak,  when  your  thought 
is  at  white  heat.  There  are  manuscri^jt 
sermons  which  are  composed  in  that  way, 
under  tlie  rush  of  a  kindled  intelligence, 
and  with  the  whole  order  of  tliought  clearly 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT.  71 

grasped  in  advance,  and  should  such  man- 
uscripts be  mislaid,  the  preacher  would  find 
but  little  trouble  in  reproducing  the  whole 
in  free  speech.  The  rule  is  a  universal  one, 
that  he  who  is  master  of  himself,  whose 
thought  assumes  the  form  of  profound, 
personal  conviction,  will  find  it  compara- 
tively easy  to  cultivate  a  clear  and  forcible 
utterance,  and  will  escape  the  slavery 
which  compels  some  men  to  clutch  their 
paper  as  if  in  conscious  danger  of  momen- 
tary shipwreck. 

I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  the 
various  recommendations  given  in  treatises 
on  homiletics,  bearing  on  the  personal  ele- 
ment in  preaching,  may  be  reduced  to  this 
one :  the  clearness  and  certitude  of  self- 
knowledge.  There  must  be  no  haziness. 
There  must  be  no  doubt.  And  then  there 
is  required  the  simple  courage  which  is 
content  to  let  the  inner  man  have  his  way. 
In  a  word,  be  yourseljp.  That  is  the  easiest 
said  and  the  hardest  done.  The  real  man 
in  us  all  is  overlaid  with  artificialities  and 
traditionalisms,  whose  wrappings  cling  to 
us  and  hinder  free  movement,  as  did  the 
bandages  which  fettered  the  risen  Lazarus. 
It  requires   bravery,  energy,  and  time  to 


72  PniLOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

tear  them  away.  If  witliin  twenty  years 
you  have  succeeded  in  becoming  yourself, 
in  clearly  grasping  your  real  thought,  and 
clothing  it  in  the  forms  of  natui-al  speech, 
you  have  done  a  great  work.  The  ministry 
of  pure  law  is  always  one  of  condemnation. 
The  attempt  to  cultivate  an  external  con- 
formity to  its  precepts,  keeps  us  forever  in 
bondage.  It  is  only  when  law  l)ecomes  life, 
when  the  spirit  itself  is  roused  from  its 
lethargy  and  comes  into  conscious  posses- 
sion of  its  indefeasible  lieritage,  that  the 
reign  of  lil)erty  begins.  Then  the  rules 
learned  by  rote,  and  received  upon  author- 
ity, enact  themselves,  and  thought  runs 
along  the  prescribed  lines  withort  friction. 
Logic,  it  has  well  been  said,  does  not  teach 
us  how  we  ought  to  thiidc,  but  how  we 
do  think.  Its  function  is  not  legislative, 
but  descriptive.  Rhetoric  does  not  teach 
us  how  we  ought  to  speak,  but  how  we  do 
speak  when  we  liave  something  to  sa}-. 
Its  function  is  not  legislative,  but  descrij> 
tive.  No  man  has  mastered  either  logic  or 
rhetoric  until  he  has  mastered  himself;  for 
logic  only  interprets  the  processes  of  clear 
thinking,  and  rhetoric  is  only  the  science 
of  clear  expression. 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT.  73 

So  then  "  Knotv  Thyself'  is  the  preacher's 
simple  and  comprehensive  canon.  And  its 
simplicity  constitutes  its  severity.  It  com- 
pels you  to  be  a  philosopher.  It  summons 
you  to  severe  and  incessant  introspection. 
It  forces  you  back  upon  the  primitive  de- 
liverances of  consciousness.  It  compels 
you  to  sift  these,  until  only  the  purest 
wheat  remains.  Psychology  and  ethics  are 
the  handmaids  of  oratory.  No  preacher 
can  afford  to  neglect  these  studies,  not 
merely  because  they  are  the  instruments  of 
the  severest  mental  chscipline,  but  because 
they  force  him  to  understand  himself,  and 
to  find  Avithin  his  own  nature  the  eternal 
basis  of  certitude.  Frederick  W.  Robert- 
son read  Plato  and  Aristotle  for  mental 
inspiration  and  equipment.  This  may  seem 
a  very  severe  diet,  but  roast  beef  makes 
blood  and  is  better  than  ice  cream  and 
cake.  The  earnest  attempt  to  find  out 
what  Kant  is  after  in  the  Critique  of  Pure 
Reason,  and  the  intelligent  comparison  of 
his  assumptions  and  conclusions  with  the 
unvarnished  testimony  of  your  own  con- 
sciousness, will  help  you  more  in  preach- 
ing, than  devouring  a  whole  library  of 
modern  literature.     We  read  too  much,  we 


<4  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHINGS 

tliink  too  little.  The  first  is  eas}-,  the 
second  is  hard.  You  may  say  that  meta- 
ph^^sics  are  dull  and  make  your  head  ache. 
That  is  inevitable ;  for  if  you  want  the  best, 
you  must  jjay  the  price.  You  complain 
that  philosophy  leads  to  nothing  practical. 
It  brings  you  face  to  face  with  yourself, 
and  notliing  is  more  supremely  practical 
than  that.  Y^)u  rei)ly  that  the  results  are 
meagre  at  the  best,  and  that  tliey  are  often 
contradictory,  if  not  incomprehensible  and 
absurd.  But  bulk  is  not  the  measure  of 
value,  and  he  Avho  seeks  to  know  himself, 
digs  in  the  deepest  mines  where  the  choic- 
est treasures  are  stored.  Y^'ou  insist  that 
it  is  the  preacher's  business  to  know  his 
Bil)le,  and  to  interpret  the  mind  of  (xod ; 
but  it  is  in  the  primary  and  necessary  deliv- 
erances of  your  i-ational  and  moral  nature 
that  the  conviction  of  God's  existence 
forces  itself  upon  you ;  you  can  under- 
stand your  Bible  only  in  personal  experi- 
ence of  its  redemptive  revelation  ;  and  you 
can  know  in  certainty  the  mind  of  God 
only  as  that  has  mastered  your  own  reason 
by  its  inherent  rationality.  WIiiyi_yoii 
transcend  the  bounds  of  pei-sonal  conyic■^ 
tion,  3'our  speech   is  cniply  and  impotent... 


THE   PERSONAL  ELEMENT.  75 

You  tell  me  that  the  preacher  should  be  a 
student  of  human  nature.  It  is  a  favorite 
phrase,  and  it  is  often  said  that  ministers 
do  not  know  men.  So  far  as  there  is  any 
truth  in  the  charge,  it  is  because  the 
preacher  does  not  know  himself.  The 
man  in  him  has  become  a  bandaged  and 
dried-up  mummy,  and  the  remedy  is  in 
setting  his  own  manhood  at  liberty.  The 
knowledge  of  others  comes  primarily  by 
the  knowledge  of  self.  Find  out  what  you 
are ;  catalogue  your  own  fears  and  hopes  ; 
survey  the  field  of  your  own  moral  conflict ; 
note  carefully  the  force  which  any  state- 
ment makes  upon  your  own  mind  and 
heart ;  analyze  the  secret  of  that  authority 
before  which  you  lie  prostrate  in  the  dust; 
and  you  will  know  every  other  man.  All 
men  are  like  yourself ;  and  in  the  clear 
study  of  that  bit  of  human  nature  which 
you  have  and  are,  you  will  reach  the  sci- 
ence of  humanity  in  its  essential  life. 
There  need  be  no  timidity  here ;  utter 
yourself,  and  your  words  will  command 
universal  attention  and  acceptance. 

It  is  equally  clear  that  such  a  method 
imposes  its  restrictions.  It  is  often  said 
that  we  must  have  a  theology  which  can 


76  PHILOSOPHY  OF  P BEACHING. 

be  preached.  This  is  only  another  way  of 
sapng  that  theology  has  for  us  its  neces- 
sar}'  limitations,  and  that  tliese  limitations 
grow  out  of  the  relation  between  the 
preacher  and  his  hearers.  They  must  be 
pei-suaded,  and  to  persuade  them  he  must 
fu-st  himself  be  persuaded.  He  must  speak 
of  his  own  knowledge.  The  force  of  his 
ap23eal  lies  in  the  energy  of  his  personal 
conviction.  He  is  pre-eminently  and  ex- 
clusively a  ^vitness.  He  must  be  a  seer. 
He  must  be  rigid  with  himself  in  excluding 
speculation  from  his  2)ul)lic  utterances, 
courageously  confessing  ignorance  where 
ignorance  describes  his  real  mental  attitude. 
He  must  be  bravely  true  to  liimself,  and 
speak  only  that  of  which  he  is  firmly 
convinced.  It  behooves  liim  to  master  his 
own  doulits  firet,  before  he  thrusts  them 
upon  others.  He  must  tear  down  only 
when  he  is  fully  prepared  to  build  up.  Do 
not  feed  your  people  on  green  apples. 
Wait  until  they  are  ripe.  From  the  fierce 
and  fiery  conflict  with  doubt,  no  thouglitful 
man  can  be  exempt.  There  will  come  days 
and  weeks  when  the  midnight  and  tempest 
are  upon  your  soul,  when  you  cry  beneath 
heavens  of  brass.     But  even  then  you  will 


THE  PERSOXAL   ELEMENT.  11 

feel  that  you  need  a  God,  that  the  soul 
hungers  after  righteousness  ;  that  truth 
and  holiness  are  priceless  and  binding, 
even  if  death  ends  all.  Preach  these  thing's 
amid  the  enveloping  blackness ;  be  true  to 
yourself  even  then,  and  your  ministry  will 
not  be  in  vain.  By  and  by  the  old  faith 
will  come  back.  You  will  not  drift  away 
from  your  mother's  knees,  where  you  first 
learned  to  pray;  you  will  not  lose  the 
radiant  vision  of  your  Lord.  Your  path 
may  lie  through  thick  and  tangled  forests 
and  over  rocky  steeps,  but  you  will  stand 
at  last  upon  the  lofty  table-lands,  kissed 
by  the  rays  of  an  eternal  noon.  Remem- 
ber, I  pray  you,  the  words  of  your  Lord 
and  mine :  "if  mi^/  man  tvills  to  do  Crod's 
will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine.''^ 


THE  ETHICAL  ELEMENT  IN 
PKEACHING. 

I  AM  aware  that  the  wording  of  my 
theme  is  calculated  to  arouse  suspicion  and 
distrust.  For  it  is  the  fashion  in  some 
quarters  to  denounce  ethical  preaching, 
and  the  preaching  of  ethics.  We  are  all 
warned  that  such  a  procedure  is  the  open 
door  into  naturalism  and  rationalism.  Ev- 
erything here  depends  upon  our  definitions. 
If  by  naturalism  we  understand  that  tem- 
per and  system  of  thouglit  which  excludes 
the  supernatural  and  makes  every  man  his 
own  and  only  redeemer,  then  the  preaching 
which  starts  witli,  and  incessantly  appeals 
to,  the  ethical  testimony  of  human  nature, 
riddles  the  naturalistic  pliilosophy  and 
leaves  it  without  a  line  of  defence.  Bush- 
nell  was  riglit  when  he  made  the  soul  of 
man  the  major  premise  in  his  argument  for 
the  supernatural.  And  that  this  was  Paul's 
78 


THE  ETHICAL    ELEMENT.  79 

method  is  clear  from  the  single  statement 
in  which  he  gives  us  the  method  of  his  min- 
istry, that  lie  sought  to  commend  himself 
to  every  man's  conscience  as  in  the  sight 
of  God.  He  made  little  use  of  external 
evidence.  He  did  not  trouble  himself 
about  the  canon.  He  appealed  to  ])ut  one 
miracle,  the  miracle  of  our  Lord's  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead ;  and  that  was  verified 
to  him  not  solely  by  historical  testimony, 
but  by  personal  experience  of  the  power 
of  the  risen  Christ.  He  let  his  own  soul 
speak,  and  the  argument  went  straight 
home.  No  preaching  ever  was  more  natu- 
ral, though  it  was  supernatural  in  every 
fibre.  The  philosophy  which  eliminates  the 
supernatural  is  hopelessly  shattered  in  the 
court  of  every  man's  conscience.  The 
denial  of  the  living  God  involves  discredit 
of  the  moral  nature,  whose  ingrained  sense 
of  guilt  and  consciousness  of  weakness 
demand  a  pardoning  and  redeeming  God. 
Hence,  Tertullian  speaks  of  the  soul's  tes- 
timony as  naturally  Christian;  and  Augus- 
tine describes  the  heart  of  man  as  restless 
until  it  found  its  rest  in  God.  If  our 
preaching  is  to  be  vital,  and  not  mechanical, 
it  must  be  fearlessly  natural,  grounded  in 


80  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

the  conviction  that  the  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion is  perfectly  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
man,  and  fitted  to  evoke  his  intelligent  and 
cordial  response. 

And  what  is  meant  by  rationalism  ?  He 
who  takes  the  ground  that  the  unaided 
reason  of  man  is  competent  to  fatliom  the 
depths  of  his  own  being,  to  explain  the 
riddle  of  his  own  existence,  to  solve  the 
problem  of  his  own  moral  contradiction 
and  unrest,  cannot  even  convert  himself 
to  his  creed,  much  less  disciple  others.  Be 
it  so,  that  we  are  only  children,  "  crying 
in  the  night,  and  with  no  language  but  a 
cry,"  the  cry  is  there ;  and  in  that  crv, 
which  nothing  can  stifle,  the  reason  in  man 
leaps  over  the  boundaries  of  inductive  logic. 
It  falls  back  upon  its  primitive  constitution 
as  demanding  a  higher  and  an  infallible 
tuition.  "We  believe  the  Gospel,  with  its 
revelation  of  the  impartial  and  infinite 
love  of  God,  its  assurance  of  free  forgive- 
ness, its  promise  of  Divine  help,  and  its 
disclosure  of  the  life  everlasting,  to  be  an 
answer  to  that  cry,  breathing  peace,  coui- 
age,  and  undying  liope  into  human  hearts ; 
and  that  iiinkcs  it  supremely  latioiial.  Here 
again  we  may  Icai-ii  hum  Paul.    I  lis  autlior- 


THE   ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  81 

ity  was  frequently  challenged.     The  high- 
church  X3arty  of  his  day  claimed   that  he 
was  not  an  apostle,  because  he  had  never 
been  a  personal  disciple  of  Christ;  and  the 
eleven  had  (hstinctly  decided,  when  they 
proceeded  to  fill   the  vacancy  created   by 
the  apostasy  and  suicide  of  Judas,  that  the 
lapsed  bishopric  could  be  held  only  by  a 
man  who  belonged  to  the  ranks  of  those 
who,   from   the   baptism   of   John   to   the 
ascension,  liad  followed  Christ.     They  cast 
their  lots,  and  solemnly  ordained  Matthias 
by   the   laying    on   of    hands.      We   hear 
nothing  more  of  him.     He  had  the  title  ; 
but  the    energy  descended  upon  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  a  man  who  never  received  apostolic 
ordination,  though  he  did  secure  apostolic 
recognition  at  the  Council  of   Jerusalem. 
Upon  Avhat  did  he  base  his  claim  to  be 
regarded  as  the  peer  of  James,  John,  and 
Peter,    the  pillars  of   the   infant   church? 
He   declared   that  he,   too,  had   seen   the 
Lord.      The   miracles    of   an   apostle   had 
been  wrought  by  him,  and  he  could  appeal 
to  these  as  the  credentials  of  his  Divine 
commission.      But    he    laid    the    primary 
emphasis  upon  the   results  of  his  preach- 
ing.    He  was  of  insignificant  stature  and 


8'J  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

lacked  many  of  the  graces  of  oratory ;  but 
he  could  say  that  he  had  been  mighty 
through  God  in  pulling  down  strongholcLs, 
in  casting  down  imaginations  and  every 
hiofh  tiling'  wliich  exalted  itself  against  the 
knowledge  of  God,  Ijringing  into  captivity 
every  thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ. 
That  describes  his  preaching.  It  was  a 
mighty  intellectual  wrestle,  before  which 
every  antagonist  went  down.  It  was  not 
the  logic  of  the  schools,  but  it  was  that 
miglitier  logic  which  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton said  Dr.  Guthrie  possessed,  in  which 
there  was  but  one  step  between  the  premise 
and  the  conclusion.  There  is  generally 
the  most  of  reason  where  there  is  the  least 
of  argument,  wdiere  the  speech  compels 
every  man  to  listen  to  the  authority  within. 
Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  The  preach- 
ing which  subdued  the  Roman  and  the 
Greek,  wliich  vanquished  the  sword  and 
the  pen,  the  preaching  of  which  Paul  was 
the  most  eminent  and  successful  represen- 
tative, is  tlie  only  preaching  which  can 
master  and  subdue  tlie  life  of  our  day.  It 
must  be  rational.  It  must  make  tlie  thought 
of  man  captive.     It  must  make  the  hearer 


THE   ETHICAL   ELEMENT.  83 

see  that  fidelity  to  self  compels  glad  sur- 
render to  Jesus  Christ. 

There  are  some  Avho  make  a  distinction 
between  the  intellectual  and  the  moral 
nature,  between  the  understanding  and 
the  reason,  on  the  basis  of  the  Kantian 
philosophy.  It  has  been  a  favorite  and 
familiar  thesis  that  the  reason  leads  us 
only  a  little  way,  and  then  hands  us  over 
to  the  authority  of  faith.  Reason  shows 
the  necessity  of  revelation  and  redemption, 
and  must  examine  the  credentials  of  a 
Divine  messenger ;  but  at  that  point  reason 
must  submit.  It  never  has  submitted,  and 
it  never  will  submit.  It  insists  that  the 
message,  in  all  its  parts  and  as  an  organic 
whole,  shall  be  rational,  shine  in  the  radi- 
ance of  self-evident  truth.  You  cannot  deal 
with  the  reason  and  neglect  the  conscience. 
The  soul  is  a  living  unity,  in  whose  con- 
scious life  the  intellectual  and  the  ethical 
elements  perpetually  blend.  You  can  have 
no  psychology  which  does  not  assume  the 
veracity  of  consciousness  ;  you  can  have 
no  true  thouglit  which  does  not  reverence 
each  separate  fact,  and  all  the  facts  in  their 
natural  order  and  in  their  completeness. 
The  ethical  is  the  primary  and  inclusive 


84  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PKEAruiXG. 

categoiy  of  the  understanding,  and  all  true 
thinking  is  at  heart  an  etliical  process. 
Nor,  Dn  the  other  hand,  can  the  moi-al 
nature  act  in  severance  from  the  intel- 
lectual. Every  moral  deliverance  is  an 
act  of  judgment,  a  -consciously  rational 
verdict.  Thus  the  science  of  the  soul  is 
an  organic,  indissoluble  unity,  where  the 
intellectual  and  the  ethical  elements  con- 
stantly Ijalance  and  interpenetrate  each 
other ;  so  that  we  may  say  that  nothing 
is  rational  which  is  not  right,  and  nothing 
is  right  which  is  not  rational ;  Avhile  the 
relation  between  God  and  the  soul  is  such 
that  nothing  can  be  rational  and  right  for 
man  which  is  not  also  rational  and  right 
for  God,  and  nothing  can  be  divinely  ra- 
tional and  right  for  God  whicli  does  not 
command  the  soul's  prompt  and  cordial 
response.  INIen  need  only  to  be  true  to 
themselves,  to  have  the  truth  of  God  mas- 
ter them.  This  does  not  make  the  human 
reason  the  seat  of  primary  authority  and 
infallible ;  but  it  does  affirm  the  capacity 
of  the  reason  in  man  to  discern  and  verify 
the  truth  of  Divine  revelation.  Otlicrwise, 
inspiration  itself  would  l)e  impossible  and 
inconceivable;    for   in    inspired    men    the 


THE   ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  85 

highest  thoughts  of  God  burn  and  glow  in 
words  and  phrases  that  are  full  of  the  fire 
of  personal  rational  conviction.  And  so 
the  Bible  continues  to  be  the  greatest  of  all 
books,  because  it  lies  nearest  to  the  level 
of  true  human  thought.  Ethical  preach- 
ing and  the  preaching  of  ethics  do  not, 
therefore,  involve  a  lapse  into  naturalism 
or  rationalism,  as  systems  of  thought  which 
exclude  the  supernatural.  They  carry  us 
resistlessly  into  the  supernatural ;  nay,  the 
ethical  life  moves  and  has  its  being  in  the 
supernatural.  Man  is  already  in  the  realm 
of  the  supernatural  and  needs  no  railway 
of  logic  to  convey  him  to  its  edge. 

But  now,  let  me  say  further,  that  a  sharp 
distinction  must  be  made  between  ethical 
preaching  and  the  preaching  of  ethics.  The 
two  are  not  synonymous.  When  you  change 
the  adjective  into  a  noun,  you  radically 
change  the  conception.  In  the  one  case 
you  define  a  certain  quality  of  the  preach- 
ing, its  pervading  and  peculiar  tone, 
without  saying  anything  about  its  con- 
tents. In  the  other  case  you  trace  the 
boundaries  of  the  subject  matter  of  preach- 
ing. Ethical  preaching  is  something  very 
different  from  the  preaching  of  ethics ;  at 


86  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

least,  in  clear  thinking,  the  two  should  not 
be  confounded.  I  plead  for  the  first,  not 
for  the  second.  It  is  the  good  news  of  re- 
demption in  Jesus  Christ  which  we  are  to 
preach,  not  a  code  of  theoretic  and  practi- 
cal morals.  There  are  a  thousand  ques- 
tions in  casuistry  upon  wliich  the  Bible 
does  not  touch,  and  upon  which  the  preacher 
has  no  right  to  pronounce  judgment.  The 
Scriptures  deal  first  of  all  with  a  succession 
of  great  redemptive  acts,  culminating  in 
the  Incarnation,  Atonement,  and  Ascen- 
sion ;  then  with  fundamental,  self-evident, 
and  universally  authoritative  principles  of 
moral  life ;  and  with  specific  precepts  only 
as  these  grow  out  of  principles.  The  apos- 
tle Paul  could  not  take  up  a  collection  for 
the  poor  in  Jerusalem,  without  referring 
to  the  unspeakable  gift  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ.  What  inen  shall  eat  and  drink, 
what  raiment  they  shall  wear,  what  houses 
they  shall  live  in,  what  ticket  they  shall 
vote,  what  amusements  and  recreations 
they  shall  indulge  in,  it  is  not  for  the 
preacher  to  say.  In  these  matters  every 
man  must  stand  and  fall  to  his  own  mas- 
ter. The  responsibility  rests  with  him,  and 
him  alone,  of  making  personal  application 


THE  ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  87 

of  the  general  principles  of  righteousness. 
He  may  not  make  a  brute  of  himself ;  he 
may  not  ignore  the  claims  of  God  and  of 
his  fellow-men ;  he  may  not  bargain  away 
the  eternities  for  temporal  advantage ;  you 
may  and  must  summon  him  to  integrity, 
honesty,  chastity,  charity;  and   the    more 
you  do  this,  the  more  impregnable  will  be 
your  vantage-ground,  the  more  authorita- 
tive will  become  your  speech.     But  when 
you    attempt   to   be    a    censor   of    private 
morals  or  a  critic   of   public  policy,  how- 
ever honest  your  intentions  or  commend- 
able your  motives,  you  will  provoke  dissent 
from   every  hearer  whose  good  will  it  is 
worth  while    to   retain.     For  you   are   to 
preach  to  men,  whom  you  are  to  urge  to 
thoughtful,  personal  independence,  whose 
character  is  to  be  unfolded  from  the  germ 
of  personal  integrity. 

Even  on  the  widest  definition,  the 
preacher  is  vastly  more  than  a  lecturer 
on  ethics.  For  ethics,  as  a  science,  deals 
with  the  elucidation  of  principles  of  con- 
duct and  character  on  the  basis  of  an  in- 
ductive psychological  analysis,  and  with 
the  applications  of  these  principles  to  pres- 
ent earthly  relations.     It  cannot  bring  to 


88  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

view  the  highest  iiKitives  to  repentance, 
such  as  are  found  in  the  h)Ye  of  God  and 
the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross.  It  may  com- 
mand and  rebuke,  hut  it  cannot  create 
anew  and  comfort.  Its  message  is  legal, 
not  evangelical,  and  you  are  summoned  to 
speak  of  pardon  and  purity  as  made  avail- 
able for  man  by  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus.  But  while  it  is  not  3^our  vocation 
to  be  a  preacher  of  ethics,  the  etliical  qual- 
ity must  be  regnant  in  all  your  preaching, 
determining  your  own  personal  mental  tem- 
pei',  controlling  your  interpretation  of  the 
Gospel,  and  giving  detiniteness  of  aim  to 
your  speech. 

The  temper  of  3'our  own  mind  must  be 
ethical.  Moral  rectitude  is  tlie  first  canon 
which  you  are  to  regard  in  the  preparation 
of  every  sermon,  in  the  selection  of  every 
text,  in  its  interpretation,  in  the  unfolding 
and  application  of  its  doctrine.  The  sul> 
tlest  temptations  of  the  preacher  are  along 
the  lines  of  mental  and  spiritual  demagog- 
ism.  He  is  tempted  to  act  the  politician, 
to  use  unworthy  means  in  order  to  secure 
laudable  ends.  He  is  in  danger  of  playing 
with  himself  and  with  his  message.  It  lias 
been  said  of  Chalmers  that  his  most  marked 


THE   ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  89 

quality  was  the  white  heat  of  his  earnest- 
ness.    His    sentences   were    long   and   in- 
volved, his  logic  was  circular  and  kaleido- 
scopic ;  but  the  repetition  of  his  thought 
only  made  its  transparent  and  glowing  hon- 
esty all  the  more  apparent ;  and  while  in 
rhetoric    and    logic    the    eminent    Scotch 
preacher   may  not   be    your   ideal,  in   the 
ethical  loyalty  of  his  mind  he  commands 
our  admiration  and  is  worthy  of  our  imita- 
tion.    Here  is  the  primary  root  of  personal 
power.     It  distinguished  Knox  and  Calvin 
and  Luther  and  Paul.     Nowhere  is  it  more 
marked  than  in  the  recorded  discourses  of 
our  Lord,  whose  sublimity  is  in  their  sim- 
plicity, whose  authority  is  in  their  radical 
integrity.  We  are  never  weary  of  insisting 
that  the   j)reacher  must  be   a  good  man; 
that  he  must  live  out  of  the  pulpit  as  he 
talks  in  it,  and  we  do  well.  But  we  do  not 
carry  the    ethical   imperative    far   enough 
when  we  stop  there ;  we  must  extend  its 
authority  over  the  subtlest,  and  most  secret, 
mental  and  spiritual  processes.     The  ethi- 
cal temper  of  which  I  speak  will  prevent  a 
man  from  making  an  unauthorized  use  of 
Scripture  language,  and  will  prompt  him 
to  commit  his  manuscript  to  the  flames,  if 


90  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

at  the  eleveiitli  liour  he  discovers  that  his 
interpretation  is  vicious  or  even  doubtful. 
It  will  guard  him  against  overstatement 
and  undue  emphasis,  and  make  him  jealous 
to  maintain  the  natural  perspective  of  truth. 
I  heard  a  sermon  some  years  since,  of  Mhich 
a  friend  said  to  me  :  "  It  was  excellent,  but 
the  first  sentence  was  not  true."  The  crit- 
icism was  deserved.  The  preacher  over- 
shot the  mark,  and  so  threw  away  his  op- 
portunity at  the  outset.  The  introduction 
cannot  be  too  severely  simple  and  trans- 
parent. With  equal  naturalness  should  the 
theme  grow  out  of  the  text.  Infinitely 
better  is  it  to  do  without  a  text  tlian  to 
twist  it  to  your  purpose.  That  is  dis- 
honest, and  the  noisiest  argument  will  be 
vitiated  by  it.  Even  on  the  rostrum  of 
political  debate  sincerity  conquers,  and 
special  pleading  digs  its  own  grave  ;  in  the 
pulpit,  and  when  you  venture  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  God,  you  can  command  a  hear- 
ing for  your  cause  only  as  you  establish  a 
reputation  for  intellectual  sincerity. 

It  is  this  demand  for  ethical  uprightness 
whicli  has  swept  the  Presbyterian  churches, 
most  conservative  of  all  ecclesiastical  l)odies, 
into  the  revision  controversy.     The  West- 


THE  ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  91 

minister  Confession  does  not  represent  the 
living  pulpit.  Its  phrases  are  repudiated ; 
the  logical  order  of  its  doctrines  is  re- 
jected. Men  feel  that  they  have  haggled 
long  enough  about  substance  of  doctrine, 
a  phrase  which  every  man  interprets  to 
suit  himself.  They  want  a  creed  to  which 
they  can  subscribe  without  mental  reserva- 
tions and  unworthy  subterfuges,  and  this 
great  church  will  renew  its  youth  when  it 
shall  have  burst  asunder  these  shackles. 
For  orthodoxy  is  right  thinking,  and  when 
a  creed  ceases  to  represent  the  sincere  con- 
victions of  those  who  subscribe  to  it,  the 
professed  orthodoxy  is  the  rankest  kind  of 
heresy,  which  neither  wealth  nor  numbers 
can  save  from  the  contempt  to  which  even 
the  semblance  of  chshonesty  is  doomed. 

But  the  ethical  element  must  not  only 
give  tone  to  the  preacher's  habitual  mental 
temper  ;  it  must  determine  his  theological 
method  as  well.  He  deals  with  ethical 
verities,  with  God  and  the  soul,  with  sin, 
law,  grace,  salvation,  and  judgment.  These 
truths  are  ethical  in  their  content  and 
import,  whatever  may  l)e  the  etymological 
origin  of  the  words.  They  must  be  ethi- 
cally interpreted. 


92  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACTIIXG. 

The  doctrine  of  an  inspired  Bible,  for 
instance,  in  whatever  foini  it  nia}^  be  stated, 
reposes  at  last  upon  the  perception  of  an 
ethical  fact.  Reach  it,  if  yon  will,  by  the 
path  of  authenticity  and  integrity  of  the 
documents,  and  thence  by  appeal  to  proph- 
ecy and  miracle,  your  primary  affirmation 
is  that  the  writers  Avere  credible  witnesses. 
They  did  not  lie,  and  they  could  not  have 
been  deceived.  That  ethical  affirmation  is 
the  l)ed-rock  upon  wliich  the  elaborate  ar- 
o-ument  is  based,  and  bv  which  its  every 
part  is  sustained.  Or  take  the  more  usual 
method  in  contemporary  dogmatics.  You 
believe  in  the  Bible  because  you  believe 
Jesus  Christ;  and  you  l)elieve  Him  be- 
cause you  believe  in  Him.  Your  confidence 
in  what  He  says,  is  based  u[)on  yoiu'  con- 
fidence in  His  personal  integrity.  His 
moral  sanity  and  sincerity  subdue  you. 
You  hardly  thiidc  of  tlie  miracles;  His 
ethical  perfection  and  His  spiritual  eleva- 
tion win  your  confidence,  and  make  it  easy 
for  you  to  believe  Iliin  when  He  makes  the 
most  startling  declarations  about  Himself 
and  the  future.  You  believe  Him  to  be 
Cxod  because  you  hav(>  faith  in  Him  as 
man.      You  believe    in    eleiiial    ictribntion, 


THE  ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  93 

in  heaven  and  hell,  because  He  taught  it. 
He  holds  you.  To  suggest  that  He  ever 
lost  his  mental  poise  is  to  you  blasphemy. 
Thus  Christianity  rests  upon  the  percep- 
tion of  an  ethical  fact  which  no  criticism 
has  been  able  to  invalidate  ;  and  the  more 
closely  you  keep  that  fact  in  view,  the 
more  pungent  and  powerful  will  your 
preaching  be.  Let  me  urge  you  never  to 
permit  any  conscious  slacking  in  the  ten- 
sion of  this  profound  ethical  confidence  in 
your  Lord.     Christianity  is  Christ. 

The  contents  of  Christian  teaching  de- 
mand a  similar  treatment.  They  are  rightly 
understood,  either  as  separate  doctrines  or 
as  an  articulated  system,  only  when  they 
are  ethically  interpreted.  The  letter  kill- 
eth;  only  the  spirit  maketh  alive,  and  a 
living  theology  is  always  in  danger  of  be- 
ing strangled  by  an  excessive  literalism, 
under  whose  pressure  the  ethical  element 
vanishes.  If  we  regard  the  Gospel  in  its 
widest  aspect  as  the  revelation  of  redemp- 
tive action  in  man's  behalf,  our  construc- 
tion of  this  action  in  the  several  forms  of 
atonement,  regeneration,  faith,  and  repent- 
ance will  depend  upon  our  previous  con- 
ception of  what  God  is  and  what  man  is. 


94  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

Grace,  as  unmerited  favor,  leads  to  sov- 
ereignty, the  infinite  freedom  of  the  Divine 
nature ;  sin,  as  the  transgression  of  hiw, 
implies  the  existence  of  definite  relatioi>s 
between  the  offender  and  the  judge.  Or, 
to  phrase  it  differently,  the  remedial  sys- 
tem is  imbedded  in  the  moral  system,  and 
must  be  conformed  thereto.  What  that 
moral  system  is,  of  which  the  Gospel  is  the 
crowning  exposition,  will  depend  upon  our 
theological  and  anthropological  postulates. 
Start  with  the  absolute  freedom  of  God,  as 
the  essential  energy  lying  back  of  His  nat- 
ure, determining  its  contents  and  expres- 
sion, resolving  Him  into  causative  will, 
and  you  are  forced  either  into  virtual 
pantheism,  denying  the  existence  and  effi- 
ciency of  second  causes,  or  into  a  mechani- 
cal interpretation  of  moral  government, 
where  covenants  and  constitutions  play 
their  mysterious  and  bewildering  parts. 
Power  ])ecomes  the  basis  of  authority,  de- 
manding blind  submission,  refusing  a  dis- 
closure of  its  rational  ground.  Supralap- 
sarianism  completely  eliminates  the  ethical 
element  in  the  government  of  the  world. 
Nor  does  it  obtain  its  rightful  i)lace  where 
one  Divine  attribuh-  is  made   central,  im- 


THE  ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  95 

posing  its  limitations  upon  all  the  rest,  as 
in  those  systems  where  justice  is  declared 
to  be  necessary  and  love  optional,  where 
law  is  regarded  as  universal  in  its  opera- 
tion, while  grace  is  limited  to  the  elect. 
The  gravest  objection  to  such  a  construc- 
tion is  not  that  it  perplexes  and  outrages 
the  human  sense  of  impartial  treatment, 
but  that  it  surrenders  and  shatters  the 
eternal  ethical  unity  of  the  Divine  Being, 
introducing  conflict  and  contrachction  into 
His  essential  nature.  Reverse  the  order 
by  making  love  primary  and  regnant,  re- 
ducing justice  to  a  conglomerate  of  benevo- 
lence and  wisdom,  divesting  it  of  its  ideal 
and  immutable  sovereignty,  and  you  are 
involved  in  the  same  inconsistency  and  con- 
tradiction. Grace  reigns  through  right- 
eousness. Holiness  and  love  are  coefficients 
in  all  Divine  ethical  action,  whether  in 
redemption  or  in  judgment.  The  ethical 
unity,  or  eternal  moral  perfection,  of  God, 
is  vastly  more  important  for  biblical  theol- 
ogy than  the  unity  of  His  essential  Being. 
If  we  turn  to  man  as  the  subject  of  Divine 
rule,  the  ethical  interpretation  of  his  nat- 
ure, relations,  and  responsibilities  again  de- 
mands sovereign  recognition.     No  doctrine 


96  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREAfHIXG. 

of  original  sin,  nor  of  imputation,  nor  of 
human  inability  can  stand  which  presses 
figurative  phrases  into  its  support,  which 
leaves  unnoticed  the  numerous  qualifying 
statements,  and  which  contradicts  the  nor- 
mal testimony  of  the  moral  consciousness. 
Responsibility  and  sovei'eign  grace  receive 
equal  and  balanced  emphasis  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. No  theory  of  responsibility  is  bibli- 
cal which  makes  man  competent  to  save 
himself.  No  theory  of  grace  is  biblical 
Avhich  makes  man  passive  in  regeneration,  ^ 
supernaturally  acted  upon  without  his 
knowledge  and  election,  irrespective  of  the 
moral  temper  of  his  personal  life.  Natural 
al)ility,  fettered  by  utter  moral  impotence, 
will  not  cut  the  Gordian  knot.  Such  ability 
is  only  a  phrase,  a  misnomer,  an  utterly 
illusive  possession.  Moral  law  imjjlies  some 
form  or  degree  of  moral  ability,  however 
inadequate  and  impartial  that  a1)ilit3'  may 
be.  The  bondage  of  the  will  is  not  its 
paralysis  or  extinction.  Theie  may  be  only 
a  despairing  cry,  like  that  which  escaped 
from  Paul  wlieii  he  pictured  the  man  in 
whom  the  Divine  law  liad  made  its  living 
authority  felt  ;  but  {\\v\v  is  life  in  a  cry. 
I  am  not  ;ittciii[>tiiig  to  frame  a  science  of 


THE  ETHICAL  ELEMENT.  97 

moral  government;  I  am  simply  insisting 
that  in  such  a  science  the  procedure  must 
be    consistently    and    thoroughly    ethical, 
preserving  the  ethical  unity  of  the  Divine 
nature,  and  doing  no  violence  to  the  ethical 
nature  of  man.     Neither  responsibility  nor 
grace  may  be  reduced  to  a  thing  of   me- 
chanics.    The  Bible  does  not  do  that.     It 
affirms  both  with  equal  boldness,  with  an 
utter  absence   of  conscious  contradiction ; 
and,   in    its   ever-blending  homage  to  the 
behests  of  moral  law,  and  the  confession 
of    moral    weakness,    in    its    language    of 
mingled  self-condemnation  and  appeal  for 
mercy,  the   soul  of  man  but  repeats  and 
confirms  the  speech  of  inspiration.     Augus- 
tinianism  and  Pelagianism,  Calvinism  and 
Arminianism,  have  yet  to  meet,  by  converg- 
ing lines,  upon  a  common  platform,  Avhere 
equal  justice  shall  be  done  to  God  as  moral 
sovereign,  and  to  man  as  his  moral  subject. 
Responsibility   involves    ethical    freedom; 
the  Divine  sovereignty  is  an  ethical  energy, 
in  whose  exercise  all  the  moral  perfections 
combine,  and  every  soul  is  reached. 

The  whole  of  what  we  call  moral  law,  or 
moral  government,  is  included  in  our  doc- 
trine of   what   God   is,  and  what   man   is. 


98  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

There  are  only  two  ethical  verities,  Gocl 
and   the    soul ;  all    other   phrases    do    but 
describe  the  personal  relations  between  the 
two,  and  these  personal  relations  are  deter- 
mined  by  the    respective   natures   of   the 
beings  related.     These  beings  are  ethical, 
and  hence  their  relations  must  be  ethical. 
They  are  brought  face  to  face,  not  joined 
by  intermediary  compacts.     Moral  law  and 
moral  government  are  not  a  tertium  quid, 
having  independent  existence  and  author- 
ity.    Moral  law  is  simpl}^  the  expression 
of  the  Divine  judgment,  and  in  that  judg- 
ment  His    eternal    ethical    j)ersonality   is 
voiced;  and   so   moral    law   is   in   perfect 
correspondence  with  the  ethical  nature  of 
man ;  moral  government  is  simply  the  ethi- 
cal   energy  of   God's   personal   rule.    We 
are  in  constant  danger  of  being  misled  by 
the    figurative    quality   of    all    language. 
Our  rhetoric  gets   the   best  of  our  logic. 
Our  imagination  plays  tricks  with  our  rea- 
son.    Popular  phrases  are  converted  into 
philosophy.     We  sharply  rebuke  men  for 
speaking    of   evolution,   natural   selection, 
and  the  like,  as  if   these  made  a  creative 
and  directing  intelligence   needless.     We 
reply  that  a  scientific  phrase  can  do  nothing, 


THE  ETHICAL   ELEMENT.  99 

that  it  can  only  indicate  how  a  thing  is 
done,  that  evolntion  implies  an  energy 
which  evolves,  and  natural  selection  an 
energy  which  selects.  But  we  do  not  take 
our  own  mecUcine.  We  talk  of  a  moral 
system,  of  Divine  covenants  and  constitu- 
tions, as  if  these  were  actual  things,  instead 
of  being  simply  human  phrases  by  which 
we  attempt  to  define  the  eternal  ethical 
relations  between  God  and  man.  If  I  may 
speak  for  myself  I  would  say  that  I  can 
use  all  the  verbal  forms  of  every  school  of 
Christian  theology ;  but  at  a  certain  point 
in  my  thinking,  I  cbop  them  all,  and  I  am 
conscious  of  only  two  things,  —  what  God 
is,  and  what  I  am.  These  are  the  two  fixed 
centres  in  the  far-sweeping  ellipse  of  Chris- 
tian thought,  and  from  them  the  whole  field 
of  moral  truth  must  be  surveyed.  Perhaps 
you  will  be  disposed  to  emphasize  a  Christo- 
centric  attitude,  as  Christ  is  both  the  visible 
embodiment  of  God  and  of  man.  For  prac- 
tical purposes  there  would  be  no  difference 
between  us;  but  I  need  only  remind  you 
that  you  cannot  define  the  person  of  Christ 
until  you  have  made  clear  to  yourself  what 
God  is,  and  what  man  is,  to  make  it  plain 
that  my  statement  only  carries  the  matter 


100         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

a  step  further  Imck,  and  lays  stress  upon 
the  primary,  fundamental  ethical  concep- 
tions which  dominate  tlie  whole  circle  of 
theological  thought.  Every  doctrine  dis- 
closes, in  the  final  analysis,  these  two  ele- 
mentary ethical  conceptions,  and  in  their 
light  the  doctrines  must  be  interpreted, 
whether  separately  or  in  their  rational  com- 
pleteness. Along  the  entire  line  of  Chris- 
tian exposition,  from  the  idea  of  creation 
to  that  of  the  final  judgment,  the  kernel 
of  truth  has  been  reached  only  when  its 
ethical  elements  have  been  clearly  appre- 
hended and  firmly  grasped ;  and  from  this 
inner  centre  of  mystery  the  retuni  will  be 
easy  to  the  free  use  of  all  the  varied 
imagery  which  has  been  consecrated  in 
Christian  speech. 

Now,  then,  with  soul  erect  and  rifle 
charged,  what  shall  be  your  aim?  It  is 
your  vocation  to  beseech  men  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God,  to  give  joyful  credence  to  the 
message  of  free  forgiveness  in  Christ,  and 
to  take  the  yoke  of  obedience  to  Him  upon, 
them.  But  to  secure  such  a  response,  you 
must  evoke  from  them  the  confession  of 
personal  guilt,  and  open  their  eyes  to  the 
glory  of  the  Lord.     They  must  see   their 


THE  ETHICAL   ELEMENT.  101 

own  sin,  and  they  must  see  His  righteous- 
ness. It  is  an  ethical  result  which  you  are 
seeking  to  gain,  and  therefore  your  appeal 
must  be  to  the  ethical  nature.  In  popular 
phrase,  you  must  train  your  guns  upon  the 
conscience    of   the   hearer.     And  what   is 


conscience  ? The   best   definition   of   the 

word,  closely  following  its  etymological, 
derivation,  which  I  have  ever  seen,  makes, 
it  the  soul's  power  of  passing  judgment, 
upon  itself,  upon  its  thoughts,  motives, 
and  actions,  a  universal,  pervasive,  judicial- 
quality  of  its  conscious  life.  It  does  not 
supply  its  own  law.  That  makes  its  appeal 
to  the  reason,  and  is  discerned  by  the  rea- 
son, but  when  once  the  rational  imperative 
has  been  heard,  the  soul  instantly  passes 
judgment  upon  itself  in  view  of  its  con- 
formity to  the  law  which  the  moral  reason 
has  proclaimed.  The  appeal  to  the  con- 
science, therefore,  is  simply  a  summons  to 
the  soul  to  exercise  its  highest  ethical  pre- 
rogative. It  is  only  indirectly,  and  medi- 
ately, that  you  can  convince  any  man.  He 
must  convict  and  convince  himself.  Hence 
illumination  is  represented  as  the  primary 
function  of  the  ministry  of  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
while  spiritual  perception,  and  the  moral 


102         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

judgment  following  it,  are  the  acts  of  tlie 
soul  under  the  revelation  of  the  truth. 
Personal  responsibility  requires  no  argu- 
ment. The  moral  law  is  in  need  of  no  de- 
fence. The  perfections  of  (lod  are  radiant 
in  their  own  light.  The  life  and  teachings 
of  Jesus  Christ  commend  themselves  to 
every  honest  and  earnest  hearer.  Tliese 
great  themes  are  to  be  handled  by  you  in 
the  profound  conviction  tliat  their  author- 
ity cannot  be  impugned,  with  an  urgency 
which  will  give  the  hearer  no  rest  until  he 
passes  judgment  upon  himself,  and  shapes 
his  course  accordingly.  This  will  not  make 
your  preaching  hortatory.  It  is  a  good  rule 
that  the  exhortation  should  be  brief,  with 
the  force  of  solid  argument  behind  it.  In 
its  direct  form  it  may  often  be  w4se  to  omit 
it.  Leave  the  truth  to  do  its  own  work. 
Throw  the  man  upon  himself.  If  you  have 
brought  him  face  to  face  with  God,  you 
may  retire.  But  to  secure  that  should  be 
your  overmastering  passion,  so  that  the 
Divine  presence  may  produce  self-convic- 
tion, confession,  penitence,  faith.  Never 
permit  yourself  to  forget  that  to  provoke 
men  to  self-judgment,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
is  your  vocation,  and  should  be  the  aim  of 


THE  ETHICAL   ELEMENT.  103 

all  your  discourse ;  and  if  your  preaching- 
be  directed  to  this  ethical  end,  its  eternal 
undertone,  majestic  and  mighty,  will  be, 
"  Now  is  the  day  of  salvation'''  summoning 
to  instant  decision  and  prompt  obedience. 


THE   BIBLICAL   ELEMENT    IX 
PREACHING. 

You  have  been  taught  that  the  Reforma- 
tion of  the  sixteenth  century  was  distin- 
guished by  two  things  :  the  appeal  to  Holy 
Scripture  in  the  settlement  of  all  questions 
of  Christian  faith  and  conduct,  and  the 
conception  of  religion  as  justihcation  by 
faith,  as  constituted  and  conserved  by  per- 
sonal and  spiritual  acts,  not  by  priestly  and 
sacramental  offices.  These  are,  respectively, 
the  formal  and  the  material  principles  of 
Protestant  Christianity.  Of  the  two,  the 
latter  is  by  far  the  more  radical  and  revo- 
lutionary, because  the  preliminary  and  pre- 
cedent conception  of  religion  becomes, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  a  canon  of 
criticism  and  interpretation.  It  gives  us, 
whether  we  recognize  it  or  not,  an  impei'ium 
in  imjoerio,  a  Bible  within  a  Bible,  a  single 
sovereign  message  dominating  the  Axhole 
course,  and  explaining  all  the  contents,  of 
104 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  105 

Divine  revelation.     This  explains  Luther's 
attitude  towards  the  epistle  by  James.     It 
was  to  him  a  letter  of  straw,  because  he 
could  not  find  in  it  the  Pauline  conception 
of    the    Gospel.     The   judgment  was   not 
based  upon  a  critical  sifting  of  historical  evi- 
dence, much  less  was  the  procedure  ration- 
alistic, as  proceeding  from  a  denial  of  the 
supernatural;  it  was  simply  applying  his 
conception  of  the  Gospel  to  each  separate 
document,  and  determining  its  relative  au- 
thority by  the  comparison.     It  is  a  danger- 
ous principle  in  the  hands  of  weak  men,  and 
easily  leads  into  all  manner  of  vagary ;  for 
it  is  not  so  much  an  intellectual  judgment, 
as  it  is  a  spiritual  intuition,  through  the  ex- 
perimental mastery  which  comes  only  by 
moral  conflict,  of  that  single  message  which 
constitutes  the  vital  substance  and  form  of 
the  Bible.     If  Luther  knew  anything,  he 
knew  what  it  was  to  be  justified  by  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  this  made  him  alike  inde- 
pendent of  ecclesiastical  tradition,  and  of  a 
slavish  interpretation  of  the   mere  letter. 
A  nominal   apostle  had  for  him  no  more 
authority  than  the  decree  of  a  Pope. 

After   him    and  with  the  decadence    of 
earnest  spiritual  life,  the  point  of  emphasis 


106         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

shifted  from  the  material  to  the  formal 
principle,  from  the  Gospel  itself  to  the 
liible  wliich  contains  it  in  Avritten  form. 
Justification  by  faith  became  itself  only 
a  dogma,  while  the  main  contention  con- 
cerned the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  ground  upon  which  that  authority  re- 
posed. Against  the  infallibility  of  councils 
and  Popes  was  set  the  literal  infallibility  of 
Scripture,  involving  the  theory  of  mechan- 
ical and  verbal  inspiration,  which  thence- 
forward assumed  the  primary  place  in 
Cluistian  dogmatics.  It  was  an  unfortu- 
nate and  mischievous  change  of  base.  It 
exposed  Protestant  Christianity  to  a  double 
assault.  Rome  replied  that  the  Church 
existed  before  the  New  Testament,  and  had 
always  been  the  custodian  of  the  sacred 
books,  whose  authenticity  and  integrity 
assumed  the  veracity  of  this  traditional 
testimony,  as  the  autograph  manuscripts 
had  long  since  disappeared  ;  wliile  Biblical 
criticism  pointed  out  that  the  Hebrew 
vowels  were  the  addition  of  latter  copyists, 
that  tlie  extant  manuscripts  varied  widely 
in  tlieir  textual  reading,  and  in  the  books 
M  hich  they  contained,  tluit  the  Septuagint 
differed  from    the    received    Hebrew  text, 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  107 

especially  in  its  cliroiiology,  and  that  many 
of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  with 
the  synoptic  Gospels,  and  the  epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  were  either  of  anonymous  author- 
sliip,  or  uncertain  in  date  of  composition, 
or  composite  in  literary  structure.  The 
history  of  dogmatic  thought,  for  the  last 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  has  been 
largely  an  attempt  to  evade  the  force  of 
these  objections,  either  by  reconciling  the 
theory  with  the  facts,  or  by  endeavoring 
to  withdraw  from  a  position  which  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  untenable. 

A  clear  and  consistent  doctrine  of  Scrip- 
ture is  something  which  Protestantism  has 
not  yet  formulated,  and  which  is  still  in 
process  of  constant  revision,  no  version  com- 
manding general  and  hearty  assent ;  and 
many  have  taken  refuge  in  the  practical  use 
of  the  Bible,  without  inquiring  into  the  nat- 
ure of  inspiration,  or  the  scope  of  that  au- 
thority which  inspiration  guarantees.  Such 
an  agnostic  position  cannot  long  be  main- 
tained, and  must  act  as  a  perpetual  check 
upon  ardent  souls,  who  insist  upon  certainty 
as  indispensable  to  mental  poise  and  moral 
enthusiasm.  There  can  be  no  biblical 
preaching  which  does  not  seize   the  inde- 


108         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

structible  element  of  Scripture,  the  one 
message  wliicli  dominates  its  entire  and 
intricate  framework,  which  is  independent 
of  lower  and  higher  criticism  alike,  and 
whose  authority  is  inseparable  from  its 
proclamation.  And  in  thus  passing  from 
the  letter  to  the  quickening  spirit,  from 
a  collection  of  pamphlets  to  the  Gospel 
which  they  contain,  we  are  simply  going- 
back  to  Luther,  to  Paul,  and  to  Christ 
Himself.  This  is  only  another  way  of  say- 
ing that  the  Bible  is  an  organism,  a  vital 
unity,  and  not  a  collection  of  diKJecta  mem- 
bra., and  that  therefore  it  must  be  under- 
stood as  a  whole,  before  there  can  be  any 
profitable  study  of  its  component  parts. 
Lower  criticism  may  content  itself  with  a 
comparison  of  manuscripts,  the  edition  of 
the  text,  and  with  grammatical  interpreta- 
tion ;  higher  criticism  may  advance  to  the 
more  intricate  questions  of  date,  author- 
ship, and  internal  structure  ;  but  the  preach- 
er meanwhile  must  be  doing  his  work.  He 
cannot  wait  for  the  last  word  from  Tre- 
gelles  or  Tischendorf,  nor  for  the  latest 
theory  propounded  at  Tiibingen  or  Berlin  ; 
he  must  deal  with  the  constant  factor 
which  all  these  researches  assume ;  he  must 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  109 

give  voice  to  that  Living  Word,  whose  re- 
ality and  power  are  independent  of  human 
scholarship.  He  cannot  be  indifferent  to 
what  is  going  on  in  the  universities  ;  he 
ought  to  keep  himself  fully  abreast  of  the 
intellectual  life  of  his  time  ;  but  the  fierce 
debate  should  be  mainly  helpful  to  him  in 
clarifying  his  thscernment  of  what  is  pri- 
mary and  essential,  and  of  what  is  secondary 
and  of  subordinate  importance.  The  net 
result  of  Christian  scholarship  will  be  a 
simple  Gospel,  whose  transcendent  and 
transfiguring  message  glows  undimmed 
and  uninjured  in  the  fiercest  crucible,  and 
wins  the  joyful  assent  of  every  earnest 
heart. 

I  find  myself  in  hearty  agreement  with 
a  living  writer,  when  he  says  that  "  many 
points  which  now  occupy  the  attention  of 
biblical  scholars,  and  call  forth  learned 
dissertations  and  elaborate  treatises,  are 
not  Avorthy  of  the  attention  given  them ; 
and  their  labors  will  be  regarded  as  the  crit- 
ical tithing  of  the  mint,  anise,  and  cumin." 
Some  of  you  may  live  to  see  the  day  when 
the  critical  acumen  of  the  nineteenth 
century  will  be  regarded  as  a  waste  of 
intellectual  energy,  as  we  now  label   the 


110         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

scholastic  ingenuity  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  the  Gnostic  speculations  of  the  earlier 
centuries,  wlien  men  will  wonder  that  the 
simplicity  of  the  preacher's  task,  in  the 
use  of  the  Bible,  should  ever  have  been 
mistaken.  The  pulpit  is  not  the  place  for 
raising  questions  to  which  an  authoritative 
answer  cannot  be  given.  Its  power  is 
in  dealing-  with  the  universal  and  self- 
evidencing  element  in  Holy  Scripture,  with 
a  firm  reliance  that  this  vital  message  will 
come  home  in  the  power  and  demonstration 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

I  am  aware  that  this  conception  of  the 
biblical  element  in  preaching  contravenes 
the  traditional  use  of  the  Scriptures.  We 
are  never  weary  of  asserting  that  every 
Christian  ought  to  read  his  Bible,  that 
preaching  should  be  pervasively  biblical, 
and  that  Christian  theology,  in  its  separate 
doctrines,  and  in  their  logical  order,  should 
issue  from  a  careful  study  of  the  holy 
oracles.  I  can  subscribe  to  all  that.  We 
agree  in  maintaining  the  plenary  religious 
authority  of  the  Bible.  It  is  the  preacher's 
text-book,  as  it  is  every  disciple's  manual. 
But  what  am  I  to  read  my  Bible  for  ?  Am 
I  to  make  no  discrimination  in  its  literarv 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  Ill 

contents  ;  am  I  to  place  all  its  histories, 
and  miracles,  and  legislation  npon  the  same 
level,  and  insist  that  everything  recorded 
within  its  covers  is  of  equally  binding 
authority  upon  faith  and  conduct?  Was 
not  this  the  blunder  of  the  early  Puritans, 
who  found  in  the  enactments  of  the  Jewish 
theocracy  the  fundamental  law  for  civil 
government,  and  who  therefore  believed 
in  the  forcible  suppression  of  heresy? 
They  were  true  to  their  logic,  but  the 
major  premise  of  their  reasoning  was  vi- 
cious, because  it  assumed  that  all  legislation 
was  equally  authoritative,  unless  it  had 
been  specifically  revoked  at  a  subsequent 
time.  Are  we  to  be  debarred  from  follow- 
ing the  principle  of  spiritual  discrimina- 
tion, which  is  so  marked  in  our  Lord's 
teaching,  and  whose  bold  use  distinguishes 
the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  ?  Is  there  not 
need  that  we  should  heed  those  sharp 
words  of  rebuke  which  our  Lord  uttered 
in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum,  "  It  is  the 
spirit  which  quickeneth ;  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing;  the  words  which  I  have  spoken 
unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are 
life "  ?  There  is  a  literalism  which  dis- 
honors the  Bible,  because  it  strangles  its 


112         nilLOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

life,  and  silences  its  sublime  testimon)^ 
It  discovers  meanings  in  names  and  num- 
bers which  they  were  never  intended  to 
suggest.  It  finds  types  of  Christ  in  every- 
thing, with  interpretations  and  applications 
as  fanciful  as  anything  ever  perpetrated  by 
the  allejrorical  school  of  Alexandria.  It 
converts  the  Bible  into  a  storehouse  of 
texts,  without  any  regard  to  the  linguistic 
peculiarities  of  the  writer,  the  people  wluun 
he  addressed,  and  the  end  which  he  had 
in  view.  The  concordance  of  Cruden  is 
made  the  commentary  of  Scripture,  and 
an  insane  man  becomes  the  interpreter  of 
an  inspired  volume.  Balaam's  words  are 
invested  with  the  same  authority  as  those 
of  Moses  and  Isaiah ;  and  Caiaphas  becomes 
as  truly  inspired  as  Paul  and  John.  No 
distinction  is  made  between  good  men  and 
bad  men,  and  even  the  words  of  the  devil 
are  quoted  as  inspired.  Should  you  ever 
have  occasion  to  preach  from  the  fourth 
verse  of  the  second  chapter  of  Job,  where 
we  read,  "  Skin  for  skin  :  yea,  all  that  a 
man  hath,  will  he  give  for  his  life,"  I  advise 
you  to  begin  your  sermon  with  the  sen- 
tence, "  That  is  a  lie "  /  The  devil  is 
represented  as  saying  that ;  and  the  book 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  113 

of  Job  proves  that  he  lied  when  he  said  it. 
The  statement  is  unqualifiedly  false.  Men 
will  die  for  their  honor,  for  their  country, 
for  God  and  truth. 

You  may  think  that  I  have  selected  an 
extreme  illustration,  and  that  there  is  a 
touch  of  sensationalism  in  my  language, 
but  my  purpose  is  simply  to  remind  you 
that  the  words  and  the  sentences  of  the 
Bible  are  not,  without  further  discrimina- 
tion, tlie  Word  of  God  which  you  and  I 
are  to  preach.  If  you  quote  Eliphaz,  the 
Temanite,  or  Bildad,  the  Shuhite,  I  shall 
feel  at  liberty  to  criticise  their  ambitious 
theodicies,  and  under  the  shield  of  God's 
own  emphatic  repudiation,  both  in  the  book 
of  Job  and  elsewhere,  I  shall  not  shrink 
from  labelling  their  logic  as  partial,  and 
their  rhetoric  as  bombastic.  And  I  should 
do  this,  because  I  am  jealous  of  the  Word 
of  God,  because  I  love  it  with  a  holy  passion, 
and  insist  therefore  that  the  real  message 
shall  not  be  inthscriminately  confounded 
with  the  literary  forms  under  which  it  has 
been  recorded  and  preserved. 

The  time  has  forever  gone  by  when  the 
human  element  in  the  composition  of  the 
Scriptures  can  be  ignored,  or  regarded  as 


114         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

incidental.  The}-  can  be  fnlly  understood 
only  in  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  reproduce 
the  actual  environment  of  their  writers, 
and  make  due  allowance  for  the  peculiar 
phraseology  in  which  they  uttered  their 
thoughts.  They  used  the  language  and 
the  formal  logic  of  their  times,  and  the 
oldest  times  of  the  great  book  are  those  of 
the  imaginative  Orient,  of  the  beginnings 
of  history,  of  primitive  tradition  in  poetic 
and  pictorial  form.  Hence  the  New  Testa- 
ment comes  more  closely  home  to  us  than 
the  Old.  The  gospels  and  epistles  are 
written  in  a  language  essentially  modern, 
vn\\\  a  modern  atmosphere  and  outlook. 
The  Sermon  on  the  ]\I()iuit  and  the  epistles 
of  Paul  fall  in  with  our  habits  of  thought 

o 

and  our  use  of  speech.  The  farther  back 
we  go,  the  more  pictorial  becomes  the  lan- 
guage, until  it  becomes  difficult  to  disen- 
tangle the  historical  from  tlie  ideal  in  the 
recorded  tradition  or  narrative. 

Nor  is  the  human  element  confined  to 
the  plu-aseology.  The  theory  that  the 
^vl■iters  of  Sci'i})turc  were  qualified  for  their 
work  by  the  gift  of  supernatural  informa- 
tion is,  at  least  in  its  unqualified  form,  an 
utterly  gratuitous  assumption.     Luke,  at 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  115 

least,  has  told  us  how  lie  went  to  work  in 
preparing  to  write  the  gospel  which  bears 
his  name,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
These  books  have  generally  been  regarded 
as  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment canon,  on  the  assumption  that  Luke 
Avas  the  companion  of  an  inspired  apostle. 
But  there  is  no  evidence  that  Paul  had 
anything  to  do  with  Luke's  literary  labors, 
or  that  he  read  Luke's  manuscripts  before 
they  were  sent  to  Theophilus.  Luke  wrote 
for  a  personal  friend,  and  in  the  introduc- 
tion to  the  first  part  of  the  story,  which 
outlines  the  life  of  Christ,  he  referred  to 
the  sources  of  his  information,  and  to  the 
care  which  he  had  taken  to  collate,  com- 
pare, and  critically  sift  them.  From  all 
that  appears,  Luke  acted  the  part  simply  of 
an  earnest,  patient,  historical  student,  claim- 
ing no  supernatural  illumination,  and  never 
dreaming  that  his  private  letters  would 
become  universally  recognized  authorities. 
Does  this  simple  explanation  deprive  these 
letters  of  their  authority?  Not  in  the 
least ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  their  verac- 
ity is  more  firmly  established.  For  while 
they  only  profess  to  record  in  some  logical 
or  chronologfical    order   the  thinsfs   which 


116         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

were  surely  believetl  at  the  time,  the  eye- 
witnesses and  ministers  of  the  word  had 
been  consulted,  and  the  result  of  the 
inquiry  was  communicated  in  private  let- 
ters—  a  form  of  literary  composition  in 
which  any  doubt  would  have  been  freely 
expressed. 

Nor  can  Luke  be  regarded  as  excei^tional 
in  this  matter.  If  his  writings  are  to  be 
regarded  as  trustworthy  and  authoritative, 
the  presumption  is  that  the  free  use  and 
incorporation  of  unknown  documents  and 
traditions  were  freely  resorted  to  in  the 
compilation  of  the  liistorical  })()rtions  of 
the  Bible.  A  faithful  use  of  tlie  royal  and 
the  priestly  archives  was  all  that  was  needed 
for  the  composition  of  the  books  of  the 
Kings  and  of  the  Chronicles.  Nor  can  it 
be  necessary  to  maintain  that  the  Penta- 
teuch, as  we  have  it,  was  written  by  Moses, 
and  that  tlie  portions  j^receding  his  own 
call  were  su})ernaturally  communicated  to 
him.  Even  the  Mosaic  authorsliij)  of  the 
Pentateuch,  \\lii(li  eau  liardly  bt'  said  to 
have  been  seriously  assailed,  does  not  com- 
pel us  to  assume  that  Genesis  is  anything 
more  than  a  carefid  c(mipilation  of  eurrent 
traditions,  serving  as  an  introduction  to  the 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  117 

real  theme  of  tlie  liistoiy.  The  emphasis 
is  on  the  establishment  of  the  Jewish  com- 
momvealth,  under  the  law  given  at  Sinai, 
and  not  on  the  length  of  the  creative  days, 
or  on  the  nature  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  or 
on  the  extent  of  the  deluge,  or  on  the 
building  of  the  tower  of  Babel. 

Thus  each  separate  book  must  be  read 
in  the  light  of  its  living,  germinant  idea 
and  intention.  Nor  can  we  stop  here. 
When  the  inductive  and  analytic  process 
has  been  completed,  the  results  must  be 
compared  and  co-ordinated  in  their  histor- 
ical order,  and  the  main  thought  which 
dominates  the  whole  must  be  eliminated. 
That  will  be  the  law,  the  prophets,  and 
the  Gospel,  which  you  are  to  preach, 
faintly  gleaming  in  the  first  promise  of 
the  seed  who  should  bruise  the  serpent's 
head,  and  making  radiant  the  face  and 
ministry  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  has  been  said  with  truth  that  criticism 
has  not  essentially  altered  the  main  facts 
of  Israel's  history.  It  has  labelled  some 
things  as  legendary  and  allegorical.  But 
the  Decalogue,  the  Temple  service,  the 
Psalms,  and  the  Prophets  have  remained, 
as  showing  the  great  thoughts,  and  record- 


118         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

ing  the  profound  spiritual  experiences, 
whicli  stirred  a  multitude  of  hearts  when 
paganism  was  well-nigh  universal,  and  dis- 
closing the  giDund  upon  Avhieh  tliat  sul>- 
lime  faith  reposed.  And  it  may  be  said, 
even  more  emphatically,  that  a  criticism 
which  in  its  extreme  form  leaves  us  four 
great  Pauline  epistles,  and  which  confesses 
that  the  belief  of  the  early  Christians  in 
the  actual  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
incapable  of  psychological  ex[)lanation,  has 
accomplished  nothing  to  discredit  Chris- 
tianity, and  has  only  placed  in  stronger 
relief  the  spiritual  energy  of  that  Gospel 
which  knows  only  Christ  and  Ilini  cruci- 
fied. Thus,  with  even  the  most  meagre 
equipment,  pushing  the  logic  of  elimina- 
tion to  its  utmost  verge,  the  great  verities 
of  God,  and  law,  and  sin,  and  redemption 
by  Jesus  Christ,  remain  as  the  most  potent 
energies  in  personal  experience  and  in  the 
mareli  of  history.  You  can  trace  these 
thoughts  in  their  orderly  development  and 
iinal  expression  in  the  fragmentary  pam- 
phlets which  make  up  your  Bible.  If  you 
place  them  in  chronological  order,  the  Gos- 
pel by  the  apostle  John  will  crown  the 
literary  structure,  and  the  whole  will  be 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  119 

radiant  in  the  glory  of  Him  who  dechared 
that  He  had  come  to  reveal  the  Father,  and 
to  give  His  life  for  the  world's  redemption. 
Here  is  the  vital  pulse  and  the  beating 
heart  of  all  Scripture,  in  the  revelation  of 
G-od,  in  his  self-expression,  by  word  and 
deed,  by  law  and  prophecy,  by  precept  and 
promise,  in  personal  experience  and  his- 
tory, in  redemption  and  judgment.  You 
are  to  read  the  Bible  to  find  out  what  God 
has  to  say  about  Himself,  to  discover  what 
He  is,  what  He  thinks  of  you,  and  what 
He  has  done  for  you.  Every  one  of  the 
autograph  manuscripts  has  been  lost  — 
what  of  that  P  There  are  a  hundi-ed  thou- 
sand variations  in  the  Greek  text  of  the 
New  Testament  alone  —  tvhat  of  that  ? 
The  genealogies  and  the  chronology  of  the 
Bible  are  in  hopeles  confusion  —  what  of 
that?  You  are  reading  a  human  transla- 
tion—  ivhat  of  that?  Suppose  Moses  did 
not  write  the  major  part  of  the  Pentateuch ; 
suppose  the  Levitical  legislation  to  be 
largely  post-exilian ;  suppose  the  latter 
part  of  Isaiah  to  be  from  the  pen  of  an 
unknown  author,  and  Daniel  to  be  an 
anonymous  composition  of  unknown  date  ; 
suppose  Job  to  be  a  drama  and  Jonah  an 


120         PHILOSOPHY   OF  PREACHING. 

allegory  ;  sup[)ose  the  greater  part  of  Gen- 
esis to  be  the  survival  of  primitive  tradi- 
tions in  pictorial  or  poetic  form ;  suppose 
all  this,  and  much  more  —  wliat  of  that? 
It  is  well  to  remember  the  words  of  Cardi- 
nal Baronius,  that  the  Scri[)tures  tell  us 
how  to  go  to  heaven,  not  how  the  heavens 
go.  Nor  were  they  given  us  to  tell  us  how 
they  came  to  be  that  they  are,  but  what 
we  must  do  to  be  saved,  and  that  God,  in 
His  love,  sent  Jesus  Christ  to  save  us. 

Is  not  that  Paul's  doctrine,  when  he 
declares  that  the  Scrii)tures  are  able  to 
make  us  wise  unto  salvation,  that  their 
design  is  instruction  in  righteousness  ? 
And  did  not  our  Lord  declare  that  "  eter- 
nal life  "  was  the  hidden  theme  of  all 
prophecy,  a  perpetual  anticipation  of,  and 
testimony  to,  that  Divine  redem})tive  pur- 
pose which  secured  historical  fullilment 
in  Himself  ?  Let  us  cease,  at  least  in  the 
pulpit,  to  discuss  the  cosmogony  of  Gen- 
esis, the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  the 
manna  in  the  wilderness,  the  story  of 
Balaam  and  his  ass,  of  Jonah  and  the 
whale,  of  Joshua  and  the  sun,  of  demoni- 
acal possession,  and  es[)ecially  of  the 
Gadarene  swine,  upon  which  latter  narra- 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  121 

tive  Mr.  Huxley  discourses  at  such  length 
and  with  so  much  feeling,  as  if  the  fate  of 
a  few  thousand  pigs  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  history  of  man's  redemption. 
Are  these  things  the  vital,  universal  mat- 
ter of  the  Scriptures?  For  mj^self,  I  be- 
lieve in  a  personal  devil  and  in  demoniacal 
possession,  though  I  frankly  own  that  I  do 
not  know  what  to  make  of  Balaam  and 
Jonah  ;  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that 
a  man  cannot  be  saved  unless  he  believes 
in  Satan ;  I  am  satisfied  if  he  believes  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  heard  some 
say  as  they  banged  the  Book  that  they  be- 
lieved every  word  within  its  covex's.  So 
do  I ;  but  I  insist  upon  reading  my  Bible 
as  that  Bible  tells  me  to  read  it,  as  the 
revelation  of  God,  as  giving  me  a  vivid 
and  glorious  disclosure  of  His  character, 
and  purposes,  and  redemptive  deeds,  and 
so  waking  in  me  patience,  faith,  hope,  love, 
and  joy.  The  true  use  of  the  Bible  is  not 
that  of  minute  exegesis,  nor  that  of  in- 
terpretation from  the  context,  nor  that 
of  synthetic  exposition  of  each  separate 
book,  but  that  of  a  firm  grasp  upon  its 
great  fundamental  and  universally  domi- 
nant verities,  which  verities  are  vital  and 


122        PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

regnant  now,  and  would  be,  if  every  coj^y 
of  the  Bible  should  be  destroyed.  Do  not 
misunderstand  me.  Exegesis  cannot  be 
too  exact.  Analysis  and  sjni thesis  cannot 
be  too  careful.  But  Avlien  all  this  has  been 
done,  it  still  remains  for  you  to  co-ordinate 
all  the  results  under  that  which  is  the  su- 
preme law  of  Holy  Scripture  —  the  revela- 
tion of  God  in  redemption.  That  is  what 
I  mean  by  biblical  preaching,  in  which 
sin  and  salvation  constitute  the  perpetual 
undertone,  the  inspiration  of  all  worshij), 
the  secret  of  all  emotion,  the  urgency  of 
every  appeal,  the  fire  and  the  force  of  all 
reasoning. 

If  this  is  not  the  true  use  of  the  Bible, 
then  why  is  it  that  the  Bible  is  just  such  a 
book  as  it  is?  Surely  God  could  easily 
have  so  shaped  events  as  to  have  preserved 
every  autograph  manuscript  of  every  book 
and  psalm  in  the  Bible.  In  such  a  case 
we  should  have  been  saved  all  perplexing 
questions  of  authorsliip,  date,  structure,  and 
the  like.  Criticism  might  have  been  made 
forever  impossible,  or  only  the  employment 
of  fools.  But  such  is  not  the  Bible  which 
we  have ;  nor  can  I  conceive  of  any  other 
reason  why  we  do  not  have  such  a  Bible 


THE  BIBLICAL   ELEMENT.  123 

as  I  have  described,  than  that  God  never 
intended  that  we  shoukl  have  such  an  one  ; 
that  He  was  indifferent  as  to  its  literal 
preservation ;  that  just  such  a  Bible  as  we 
have,  with  its  critical  difficulties  and  un- 
certainties, was  meant  to  be  placed  in  our 
hands  and  used  by  us  ;  and  that,  therefore, 
the  critical  problems  which  are  paraded 
with  so  much  ostentation,  and  which  are 
a  trial  to  the  faith  of  so  many,  are  of  sub- 
ordinate importance,  and  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  disturb  us  in  the  slightest  degree. 
They  do  not  annoy  the  ignorant  man  in  his 
devotions,  to  whom  the  Scriptures  are  a 
Divine  lamp,  filled  with  beaten  oil  and 
glowing  with  a  celestial  flame,  lighting  uji 
for  him  the  path  of  his  pilgrimage  through 
the  gloomy  gates  of  death,  to  where  the 
heavens  are  forever  blue  and  racUant ;  and 
it  is  an  abuse  of  scholarship  when  it  is  per- 
mitted to  diminish  the  intensity,  or  to  inter- 
rupt the  continuity,  of  this  spiritual  and, 
Divine  fellowship.  The  refuge  of  the 
preacher  is  not  in  ignorance,  nor  in  spe- 
cial pleading,  nor  in  suspended  judgment, 
but  in  the  candid  recognition  of  all  doubt- 
ful and  debatable  questions,  and  in  such  a 
conception  and  estimate  of  the  Bible  that 


124         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

he  can  use  it  witli  ever-increasing  facility 
and  force,  with  the  utmost  assurance  that 
the  freest  and  most  thorough  scholarly  re- 
search can  only  help  in  the  end  the  cause 
of  truth,  whatever  havoc  it  may  make  ^\'ith 
traditional  verdicts  and  judgments. 

I  have  tried,  in  this  discussion,  not  to 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  I  have  been 
asked  to  lecture  on  preaching.  I  have  re- 
sisted the  temptation  to  make  excursions 
into  the  field  of  dogmatics,  and  I  have  re- 
frained from  an  attempt  to  discuss  the  burn- 
ing questions  of  modern  biblical  criticism. 
I  have  simply  reminded  you  that  there  is 
no  agreement  on  the  nature  of  inspiration, 
nor  on  the  literary  sources  which  the  writers 
of  the  Scriptures  used  in  their  work.  Not 
one  of  us  is  indifferent  to  these  inquiries, 
but  while  they  are  being  prosecuted,  we 
must  have  a  Bible  which  we  can  conscien- 
tiously use,  or  else  manfully  step  down  and 
out. 

Of  course  I  speak  of  reverent  and  Chris- 
tian criticism.  I  leave  wholly  out  of  the 
account  that  school  whose  philosophical 
postulate  is  a  denial  of  the  supernatural, 
whose  definition  of  the  word  "  scientific  " 
involves  the  impossiljility  of  miracles,  and 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  125 

who  insist  upon  accounting  for  the  history 
of  the  Jewish  commonwealth  and  for  the 
establishment  of  the  Christian  C'hurch,  as 
they  would  in  tracing  the  events  which  led 
to  the  establishment  of  the  American  Re- 
public ;  though,  even  in  the  latter  case,  the 
supernatural  element  emerges  in  the  pro- 
found religious  convictions  which  drove 
the  Pilgrims  from  Scrooby  to  Ley  den,  and 
from  Leyden  across  the  waste  of  waters  to 
Plymouth  Rock.  As  Descartes  insisted 
that  absolute  doubt  involved  the  existence 
of  the  doubter,  defying  elimination  by  any 
process  of  dialectics,  so  it  may  be  said  that 
personality  is  itself  the  affirmation  of  the 
supernatural,  and  that  even  he  who  denies 
the  existence  of  a  personal  God  proves  that 
the  idea  of  the  supernatural  is  a  perfectly 
indigenous  and  familiar  form  of  thought. 
It  is  a  waste  of  time  to  argue  with  an  athe- 
ist or  a  pantheist.  The  short  method  with 
such  people  is  the  direct  appeal  to  the  sense 
of  personal  dependence,  and  of  personal  ob- 
ligation. The  only  argument  here  is  that 
of  self-conviction  ;  and  that  can  never  fail, 
for  the  soul  is  eternally  at  war  with  any 
system  Avhich  eliminates  the    ethical,  and 


126         PHlLOHOPllY  OF  PREACHING. 

tlie  ethical  means  a  personal  and  righteous 
God. 

Nor  have  I  sought  for  a  common  ground 
with  those  who  reduce  Christ  to  a  m3-th, 
or  who  refuse  to  recognize  His  prophetic 
authority  and  redeeming  energy.  There 
can  be  no  religion  without  a  personal  God, 
and  there  can  be  no  Christianity  without 
the  Lord  Jesus  Clii'ist.  The  personal  reve- 
lation of  God  in  Christ  is  assumed,  not 
merely,  nor  even  mainl}-,  on  the  ground 
of  historic  evidence,  but  on  the  incontro- 
vertible ground  of  personal  experience,  in 
ever  widening  circles,  and  in  ever  deepen- 
ing intensity.  The  life  of  the  world  was 
never  so  full  of  the  personal  Christ  as  it 
is  to-day.  But  this  revelation  of  the  per- 
sonal God  in  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  the 
supreme  fact  and  the  conquering  energy 
of  our  time,  is  the  only  thing  which  I  have 
postulated,  and  my  contention  is  that  this 
is  the  essential  element  in  that  long  his- 
torj',  whose  l)roken  and  fragmentary  records 
make  up  the  Scriptures.  That  constitutes 
not  only  the  unity  of  Moses,  David,  Isaiah, 
Paul,  and  John,  but  also  the  unity  of  the 
Bible  and  of  our  living  Christianity.  The 
broad  and  widening  stream  is  thereby  seen 


THE  BIBLICAL  ELEMENT.  127 

to  be  one  with  its  original  sources,  traced 
to  the  origin  of  man.  Therein  lies  the 
value  of  the  Bible,  and  that  must  be  the 
supreme  canon  of  interpretation.  God  in 
Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself, 
is  its  great  theme.  All  other  questions, 
whether  dogmatic  or  critical,  are  subor- 
dinate, and  may  be  ignored  in  your  voca- 
tion as  preachers  of  the  Gospel. 

I  am  perfectly  aware  that  all  this  is  not 
new  to  you.  You  have  gone  all  over  tliis 
ground  in  the  lecture-room.  But  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  pulpit  is  not  that  of  the  library. 
You  can  read  the  story  of  Napoleon's  wars, 
and  study  the  maps  of  his  campaigns,  with- 
out palpitation  of  heart ;  but  your  face 
would  blanch  at  the  flash  of  sabres,  and 
you  would  dodge  the  cannon-balls  if  you 
saw  them  speeding  from  the  guns.  To 
proclaim  upon  the  housetops  what  has  been 
whispered  in  the  ear,  requires  moral  cour- 
age. Still,  that  which  gives  a  relief  to 
you,  you  are  bound  to  give  to  others.  You 
may  not,  even  by  your  silence,  countenance 
a  claim  for  the  Bible,  which  claim  every 
intelligent  hearer  knows  to  have  been  dis- 
credited  by  Christian  scholarship.  To  do 
that  will  subject  you  to  the  charge,  either  of 


128         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

ignorance  or  of  cowardice.  You  need  not, 
you  should  not,  make  the  pulpit  the  arena 
of  debate  upon  questions  in  dispute  ;  you 
need  not,  you  should  not,  pose  as  the  ad- 
vocate of  this  or  that  theory  of  inspiration, 
of  this  or  that  school  of  critical  inquiry ; 
but  you  can,  and  you  ought  to,  use  your 
Bible  as  the  record  of  the  revelation  of 
God  to  men,  and  give  men  phxinly  to  under- 
stand that  this  is  the  vital  marrow  of  Scrip- 
ture, a  living  fact  whose  presence  and  power 
cannot  be  ignored,  and  wliich  is  wholly 
independent  of  either  the  lower  or  higher 
criticism.  Let  your  hearers  see,  by  your 
personal  attitude,  that  they  need  not  be 
perpetually  dodging  cannon-balls,  accom- 
panied with  smoke,  and  flash,  and  roar, 
that  through  the  serried  ranks  of  locked 
bayonets  the  real  Bible  sweeps  onward  to 
the  conquest  of  the  earth.  Do  not  under- 
take to  wear  Saul's  armoi-.  Go  fortli  with 
sling  and  pebble,  as  David  did,  when  he 
answered  the  challenge  of  the  proud  Phil- 
istine. The  simplest  view  of  the  Bible  is 
the  best,  both  for  yourself  and  for  your 
hearei-s.  Its  free  and  reverent  handling 
will  invest  it  with  a  })ower  little  dreamed 
of;  so  pnit'ound  in  its  insight,  so  searching 


THE  BIBLICAL   ELEMENT.  129 

its  disclosure  of  the  secrets  of  personal 
unrest,  and  of  national  decadence,  so  true 
to  life  its  description  of  the  moral  conflict 
which  wages  in  every  soul,  so  convincing 
its  revelation  of  the  character  of  God,  so 
winning  its  p'ortraiture  of  Christ,  so  jteur- 
ing  and  inspiring  its  promises  and  predic- 
tions. Bring  men  at  once  into  the  Holy 
of  Holies,  and  they  will  forget  the  mer- 
chants and  money-changel's,  the  din  of 
whose  voices  fills  the  outer  courts. 

Of  course,  such  a  preaching  of  the  Gos- 
pel takes  for  granted  that  the  personal 
revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  has  been 
verified  for  you  in  personal  experience. 
The  secret  of  the  Lord  must  be  in  your 
possession.  With  it,  the  most  meagre 
attainments  in  scholarship  may  make  you 
a  messenger  of  power;  without  it,  the 
amplest  literary  equipment  and  the  loftiest 
eloquence  will  leave  your  speech  "  as  sou7id- 
ing  brass,  or  a  tinJdiyig  cymbal,'''' 


THE   SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT   IN 
%  PREACHING. 


I  PURPOSE  ill  the  present  lecture  to  fol- 
low up  tlie  hint  so  admirably  phrased  by 
the  honored  and  mourned  occupant  of  this 
chair  for  1884,  but  which  he  reluctantly 
dismissed  from  thorough  discussion,  con- 
tenting himself  with  saying  that  "a  ser- 
mon gets  to  be  a  sermon,  and  saves  itself 
from  being  a  lecture,  by  being  made  and 
delivered  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  That  ex- 
presses the  exact  truth,  and  I  deeply  regret 
that  the  man  who  could  put  the  whole 
matter  so  tersely,  did  not  address  himself 
to  its  full  exposition ;  for  a  clear  analysis 
of  the  elements  of  what  is  called  spirit- 
uality, is  of  supreme  importance  both  for 
the  preacher  and  for  the  hearer.  I  had 
not  read  the  sentence  which  I  have  quoted 
until  long  after  I  had  marked  out  the  plan 
of  the  present  coiusi'.  and  had  become 
130 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  131 

deeply  absorbed  in  the  theme  on  which  I 
venture  to  speak ;  but  I  heard  in  it  a 
voice  responding  to  my  own  convictions, 
and  urging  me  to  renewed  and  severer  and 
prayerful  reflection.  That  the  preacher 
should  be  a  spiritual  man,  and  that  Sjv^ery 
sermon  should  be  saturated  with  the  spirit- 
ual element,  as  the  atmosphere  is  charged 
with  moisture  tind  light,  will  be  at  once 
admitted  by  every  one;  but  the  very 
promptness  of  the  admission  constitutes 
one  of  the  difficulties  of  the  discussion,  as 
if  the  self-evidence  of  the  proposition  pro- 
vided also  its  definition.  I  shall,  therefore, 
ask  you,  first,  to  consider  what  spiritu- 
ality is,  and  secondly,  to  inquire  by  what 
methods  it  may  be  cultivated  and  cher- 
ished. 

There  is  a  vast  deal  of  vague  and  un- 
satisfactory thought  about  the  first  ques- 
tion. "Spiritualit}^  is  frequently  spoken  of 
as  if  it  consisted  in  a  peculiar  tempera- 
ment, the  constitutional  possession  of  a 
few,  or  as  if  it  were  a  special,  super- 
naturally  imparted  gift.  A  distinction  is 
often  made  between  that  general  opera- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  issues  in 
regeneration,  assurance  and  sanctification, 


132         PHILOSOPTIT  OF  PREACHING. 

the  universal  heritage  of  all  believers,  and 
that  special  inchvelling  of  the  Spirit  which 
constitutes  a  baptism,  or  an  enduement 
with  power.  They  are  regarded  as  essen- 
tially distinct,  as  proceeding  upo'n  different 
conditions,  moving  in  different  planes, 
and  designed  for  different  ends.  But 
when  Paul  describes  the  gifts  of  th6  Spirit, 
he  not  only  makes  them  the  manifesta- 
tions and  the  operations  of  a  single 
energy,  reducing  all  difference  to  one  of 
degree,  he  also  affirms  that  the  law  of 
distribution  is  a  thoroughly  rational  and 
impartial  one,  determined  not  only  by  the 
personal  sovereignty  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
dividing  to  every  man  severally  as  He  will, 
nor  merely  by  the  principle  of  grace  or  un- 
merited favor,  but  also  graduated  to  the 
proportion  of  faith,  "the  receptive  fac- 
ulty," as  Alford  says,  "  for  all  spiritual 
gifts."  Sovereignty,  grace,  and  the  meas- 
ure of  faith  are  co-ordinated,  and  must  be 
regarded  as  interdependent  and  organically 
indivisible  ;  and  in  the  measure  or  propor- 
tion of  faith,  personal  responsibility  and 
personal  activity  are  most  clearly  affirmed. 
For  while  faith  is  the  gift  of  God,  it  is  also 
the  universal  duty  and  prerogative  of  man ; 


THE  SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  133 

not  an  isolated  or  mechanical  act,  securing 
the  gift  of  personal  salvation,  defined  as 
trust  in  a  person,  but  an  habitual  and 
elevated  state  or  grace  of  the  soul,  its 
maturing  power  of  spiritual  perception, 
appropriation,  and  activity.  Our  business, 
therefore,  concerns  this  personal  attitude, 
the  completeness  of  our  voluntary  subjec 
tion  to  faith ;  for  faith  is  the  human  condi- 
tion determining  and  limiting  the  distribu- 
tion of  spiritual  gifts. 

Now  faith  is  defined,  in  its  generic  and 
essential  being,  as  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen. 
It  deals  with  the  invisible,  and  has  an  im- 
mutable conviction  of  the  unseen  as  the 
eternal  reality,  which  rational  conviction 
urges  to  and  secures  moral  conformity. 
Faith  is  contrasted  with  sight,  never  with 
knowledge.  It  is  knowledge  of  the  high- 
est order,  reason  apprehending  the  unveiled 
and  eternal  secrets  of  being,  human  and 
Divine,  so  true  that  in  their  clear  and  com- 
plete perception  the  moral  law  enacts  itself 
with  all  its  sanctions.  The  spiritual  man 
is  he  who  has  the  mind,  the  (fypovrj/jia  of 
the  Spirit,  who  cherishes  the  thoughts,  the 
desires,  and  the  aims  of   the   Spirit,  who 


134        PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

views  all  things  in  God,  who  adopts  the 
Divine  estimates  and  purposes,  who  regards 
all  that  is  from  its  invisible  and  eternal 
side,  and  who  glacU}^,  even  eagerly,  brings 
his  own  life  into  haT)itual  conformity  with 
the  revelation.  He  is  a  seer,  and  he  does 
not  permit  himself  to  be  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision.  Spirituality,  then,  is  an 
intensely  active  state.  It  is  rational  and 
voluntary,  a  frame  of  mind  which  Paul 
makes  the  evidence  of  regeneration,  when 
he  declares  that  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  is 
life  and  peace,  and  which  he  contrasts  with 
the  mind  of  the  flesh,  that  carnal,  sensu- 
ous, self-centred,  and  selfish  wa}^  of  think- 
ing and  acting,  against  which  every  man 
is  warned  as  sure  to  end  in  death. 

This  rules  out  the  notion  that  spirituality 
is  the  equivalent  of  ecstasy,  a  breaking 
through  of  the  limits  of  conscious  person- 
ality, a  contemplative  absorption,  in  wliich 
the  reason  is  benumbed  or  paralyzed.  This 
is  mysticism,  and  mysticism  is  a  pantheistic 
transformation  of  New  Testament  Christi- 
anity. It  is  the  child  of  the  Orient,  whose 
heaven  is  Nirvana,  and  at  an  early  day  it 
began  to  influence  Christian  tliought  and 
worship.     Against  this  error  Paul  entered 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  135 

his  earnest  protest  in  his  correspondence 
with  the  Chnrcli  of  Corinth,  warning  tliem 
not  to  make  tlie  mistake  of  snpposing  that 
spiritual   perceptions  or  experiences  were 
unintelligible,  either  to  the  recipient  or  to 
the  hearer.     They  spake  with  tongues,  and 
in  such  a  state  of  excitement,  that  when 
they  sang,  -or  prayed,  or  exhorted,  nobody 
could  understand  them;  while  the  confu- 
sion was  increased  by  several  taking  part 
at  one  and  the  same  time.     The  apostle 
insisted  that  all  this  was  wrong.     He  laid 
down  the  doctrine  that  God  is  the  God  of 
order,  and  that  the  spirits  of  the  prophets 
are  subject  to  the  prophets,  that  the  highest 
spiritual  state  is  a  conscious  and  voluntary 
one.     He  appealed  to  his  own  experience. 
He  reminded  his  hearers,  that  he  too  had 
the  gift  of  tongues,  and  in  a  more  remark- 
able degree  than  they  all,  that  he  had  been 
caught  up  to  the  third  heaven,  when  he  did 
not  know  whether  he  was  in  the  body  or 
out  of  the  body,  but  that  even  then  he  saw 
and  heard,  the  recipient  of  an  intelligible 
and  remembered  revelation,  which  he  did 
not  feel  at  liberty  to  communicate  ;   and 
that  when  he  sang  or  prayed,  it  was  not 
only  an  act  of  the  spirit,  but  also  of  the 


136         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

understanding.  He  recognizes  no  excep- 
tion to  the  rule  that  the  spiritual  state  is 
always  a  conscious,  intelligent,  ami  iutelli- 
gil)le  one.  It  is  the  pagan  notion  of  inspi- 
ration, that  the  deit}^  mesmerizes  the  man, 
throws  him  into  physical  convulsions,  in- 
duces epilepsy  and  mental  vacuity,  so  that 
he  does  not  know  what  he  is  doing  or  say- 
ing. Not  such  is  Biblical  inspiration,  for  the 
writers  of  the  Bible  knew  what  they  meant 
to  say,  and  to  get  at  that  meaning  is  our 
chief  business  as  reverent  students  of  the 
Word.  Inspiration  was  not  ecstasy,  a  Di-  y^ 
vine  mesmerism  ;  and  least  of  all  is  spirit- 
uality such  a  mood. 

Nor  is  spirituality,  primarily  or  mainly,  ^ 

an  emotional  state,  a  condition  of  unusual 
intensity  of  feeling,  expressing  itself  in 
boisterous  or  pathetic  speech.  It  is  not  a  l/ 
thing  of  tears  and  tones.  The  general  law 
of  the  sensibility  is  that  it  is  not  under  the 
direct  control  of  the  will.  Its  states  are 
involuntary  and  necessary  concomitants  of 
perception  and  action,  whether  physical, 
mental,  or  moral.  Some  nerve  must  be 
touched  and  jarred  l)efore  there  can  be 
pain,  and  then  the  ])ain  comes  without 
your  consent,  nor  can  it  be  dismissed  at 


THE  SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  137 

your  option.  You  cannot  make  yourself 
hungry  or  thirsty  whenever  you  choose, 
nor  can  you  quiet  the  empty  stomach  and 
cool  the  fever  of  parched  lips  by  a  com- 
mand. Whether  you  shall  have  a  bitter  or 
a  sweet  taste  in  your  mouth,  depends  upon 
your  taking  a  lump  of  sugar  or  a  quinine 
pill.  From  a  pleasant  dream  you  wake 
refreshed  and  sunnj^ ;  from  a  horrible  one 
you  wake  exhausted  and  trembling.  Good 
news  makes  you  happy ;  bad  news  fills 
you  with  alarm.  Bright  thoughts  make 
your  face  shine  ;  gloomy  thoughts  make 
the  countenance  sad ;  bitter  thoughts  create 
a  scowl.  Love  and  hate  are  the  reflex  in 
sensibility  of  the  action  of  reason  and  will. 
You  can  learn  to  love  those  whom  once  you 
hated,  by  studying  them  more  carefully, 
judging  them  more  impartially,  by  becom- 
ing better  acquainted  with  them ;  and  the 
same  process  may  change  your  attachment 
into  aversion.  The  emotion  changes  under 
the  new  estimate  which  prolonged  atten- 
tion creates.  If  that  attention,  which  is 
only  reason  held  to  its  task  by  the  will, 
discloses  some  element  of  good  behind  the 
most  repulsive  wrappings,  love  will  come 
to  its  birth. 


138         riJILOsOPUY  OF  PEE  ACHING. 

Not  otherwise  is  the  love  for  God  waked  ^ 
in  human  hearts.  It  comes  through  the 
revehition  of  what  God  is  and  does,  by 
the  apprehension  of  His  veracity  and  in- 
finite goodness.  The  will  compels  the 
soul  to  look  and  listen,  to  hear  and  heed 
the  revelation;  and  when  this  result  has 
been  secured,  the  emotions  of  peace  and 
joy  bring  their  sunshine  and  their  song 
into  life.  So  far  as  the  process  of  con- 
version can  be  traced,  it  begins  in  the 
will  as  compelling  attention,  and  it  is  com- 
pleted in  the  gradual  clearing  away  of  mis- 
apprehensions, in  the  emergence  of  right 
ethical  perce[)ti()ns  and  judgments,  in  an 
intelligent,  unprejudiced  view  of  self,  and 
of  God's  attitude  towards  man  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Repentance  is  simply  change  of 
mind,  induced  by  serious  and  prolonged 
attention,  which  attention  becomes  a  fixed 
voluntary  mental  habit,  and  the  convic- 
tions thus  formed  become  the  formative 
elements  of  the  regenerated  character  and 
conduct.  The  new  mental  perceptions, 
changed  through  the  will  into  the  organic 
law  of  moral  life,  evoke,  Iw  necessary 
reflex  action,  the  appropriate  emotions  of 
penitence,  peace,  hope,  joy,  and  love.     So 


THE  SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT  139 

that  the  Scriptural  injunction  is  as  pro- 
foundly philosophical  as  it  is  practical, 
"  whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever 
things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are 
just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatso- 
ever things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things 
are  of  good  report ;  if  there  be  any  praise, 
think  on  these  things."  The  emphasis  is  V 
on  the  rational,  not  on  the  emotional ;  if 
men  will  only  think  upon  the  right  things, 
the  things  that  are  true  and  fair  and  pure, 
with  an  intensity  and  continuity  that  shall 
mak€  every  rational  perception  a  law  to 
the  moral  nature.^  and  a  principle  of  per- 
sonal conduct,  the  appropriate  feelings  will 
come  of  themselves,  as  perfume  exhales  / 
from  flowers.  v/ 

There  are  many  who  sneer  at  doctrinal 
preaching,  who  tell  us  that  intellectualism 
in  religion  is  cold  and  chilling,  and  that 
the  true  sphere  of  Christian  experience  is 
in  the  sensibilities.  Matthew  Arnold's  fa- 
mous phrase  that  religion  is  "morality 
touched  with  emotion,"  expresses  this 
phase  of  modern  religious  philosophy.  Re- 
ligion is  viewed  as  the  poetry  and  sentiment 
of  practical  life.  In  the  biblical  conception, 
it  is  not  emotion  which  transfisfures  moral- 


140         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

ity  into  religion,  but  the  open  vision  of  the 
living  God,  the  profound  and  habitual 
conviction  of  His  presence,  His  moral  ma- 
jesty, and  His  eternal  compassion.  Men 
are  changed  into  the  image  of  Christ  by 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  through  that  fixed 
attention  which  reveals,  and  in  revealing 
imparts,  the  spiritual  glory  of  the  Son  of 
(lod.  The  process  is  voluntary  and  rational, 
not  emotional.  Let  practical  morality  be 
moved  b}^  the  thought  of  what  God  is,  as 
revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  it  will  become 
Di\dne.  The  earthly,  the  sensual,  the  sel- 
fish, will  drop  away,  as  dead  leaves  fall  be- 
fore the  push  of  swelling  buds.  And  the 
fountains  of  the  deep  will  be  broken  up. 
There  will  be  tears  and  laughter,  trembling 
and  hope,  shame  and  exultant  joy.  Great 
thoughts  are  what  Herder  called  for,  when 
he  lay  dying;  and  great  thoughts  are  the 
bread  which  men  must  eat  if  they  are  to 
become  sinewy  and  strong,  with  the  flush 
'of  health  upon  the  cheek. 

A  rational  religion  cannot  be  passionless. 
To  look  upon  the  things  that  are  invisible, 
to  have  an  abiding  personal  conviction  of 
their  reality  and  their  eternal  majesty,  can- 
not leave  a  man  icy  and  inactive.     It  will 


THE   SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  141 

make  every  nerve  in  liim  quiver,  every  drop 
of  blood  in  liis  veins  boil.  The  vision  will 
evoke  the  passion.  Let  a  man  drift  down 
the  Niagara  River,  with  hands  folded,  and 
half  asleep,  until  the  warning  roar  of  the 
cataract  rouses  him  and  makes  him  atten- 
tive. What  makes  him  seize  the  oars,  and 
bend  to  his  work,  until  every  muscle  is  at 
its  utmost  strain,  and  the  breath  comes  hot 
and  quick  from  his  lips  ?  He  has  seen  the 
impending  danger,  and  he  has  heard  the 
angry  tones  of  the  abyss.  Should  he  suc- 
ceed in  gaining  the  sliore,  or  make  the  aw- 
ful plunge  without  loss  of  life,  no  one  would 
need  to  tell  him  to  rejoice.  The  danger 
would  be  that  the  necessary  reaction  in  the 
sensibility  would  throw  him  into  a  swoon, 
if  it  did  not  paralyze  the  action  of  the 
heart.  Neither  can  any  man  have  a  vivid 
conception  of  what  God  is,  in  His  holiness 
and  grace,  in  His  majesty  and  power,  in 
His  infinity  and  eternity,  without  experi- 
encing the  correspondent  emotions  of  alarm, 
of  remorse,  of  penitence,  of  despair,  of  hope, 
of  joy.  What  the  feelings  shall  be  will 
depend  upon  the  attitude  which  the  will 
assumes  to  the  disclosure.  The  thought 
which  is  real  and  vital  to  the  soul,  before 


142         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHIXG. 

whose  authority  the  will  bows,  and  to 
which  it  compels  obedience,  cannot  main- 
tain its  place  and  do  its  work  without 
rousing  the  sensibilities,  any  more  than  a 
bar  of  red-hot  iron  can  be  applied  to  your 
flesh  without  provoking  a  cry  of  pain. 
You  can  play  at  thinking,  give  yourself 
up  to  intellectual  amusement,  and  learn  to 
laugh  when  you  deal  with  the  most  awful 
themes  ;  but  then  you  do  not  really  believe 
or  see  them,  they  have  not  become  eternal 
realities  to  you.  When  thought  does  be- 
come vital,  and  when  your  will  locks  arms 
with  your  conviction,  you  will  have  all  the 
feeling  you  can  take  care  of.  "jSIeditate 
on  these  things  "  was  the  great  apostle's 
parting  word  to  Timothy,  "■  give  thyself 
wholly  to  them,  that  thy  profiting  may 
appear  to  all  "  ;  an  excellent  rule  for  the 
individual  Christian,  and  for  the  Christian 
preacher. 
\  /  That  the  feelings  are  not  directly  under 
our  control,  and  should  not  form  the  bur- 
den of  our  immediate  anxiety,  is  plain  also 
when  you  consider  another  fact  of  great 
importance.  One  emotion  may  be  crowded 
out  by  another  and  an  opposite  one.  You 
can  bec(mie  unconscious  of  hunger,  weari- 


THE  SPIRITUAL    ELEMENT.  143 

ness,  and  even  acute  pain,  by  complete  ab- 
sorption in  something  else.  You  may  not 
be  able  to  eat  Avhile  your  thought  is  brood- 
ing, and  you  may  be  insensible  to  great 
physical  discomfort.  A  great  joy,  or  an 
overwhelming  sorrow,  takes  away  your  ap- 
petite. A  sudden  danger  makes  you  care- 
less of  appearances.  Sleep  forsakes  you 
when  the  sick  demand  your  attention. 
Fear  vanishes  when  a  great  crisis  is  upon 
you.  The  lower  emotion  retreats  before 
the  hiofher.  But  how  ?  You  do  not  deal 
directly  with  your  feelings ;  something 
comes  in  to  change  the  direction  of  your 
thoughts,  until  by  attention  they  are  di- 
verted and  riveted,  and  as  these  new 
thoughts  master  you,  the  feelings  change 
without  effort  on  your  part.  Now,  this 
fact  is  of  the  highest  practical  impor- 
tance. If  you  want  to  change  your  own 
feelings,  or  the  feelings  of  others,  there 
must  be  a  change  in  the  thoughts ;  you 
must  give  to  the  mental  vision  a  different  / 
direction. 

I  might  tarry  here  to  show  that  this  sim- 
ple rule  provides  you  with  a  principle  of 
the  highest  order  for  your  pastoral  duties, 
in  your   treatment  of   inquirers,  in   your 


14-4         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PliEACHIXG. 

visits  to  the  sick,  in  your  converse  ■with 
the  bereaved  and  the  despondent.  You 
must  honor  the  law  of  expulsion,  and  you 
nuist  expel  by  the  earnest  use  of  other 
thoughts,  until  you  have  induced  a  healthy 
mental  vision.  But  this  is  not  my  present 
purpose  ;  and  a  hint  is,  perhaps,  all  that  is 
needed  here.  I  am  trying  to  make  it  clear 
that  spirituality  is  not  an  emotional  state, 
as  the  emotions  are  not  directly  under  our 
control,  and  cannot  therefore  be  regarded 
as  moral  or  spiritual  per  se;  and  that  a 
higher  emotion  can  displace  a  lower  one 
only  by  the  introduction  of  another  and 
intenser  thought.  The  lions  in  the  -way 
filled  Christian  -with  alarm,  until  he  saw 
that  the}^  were  chained,  and  then  he  marched 
between  them  singing.  The  valley  of  shad- 
ows did  not  affright  David,  because  he 
knew  that  the  Divine  shepherd  was  Avith 
liim.  It  was  under  the  power  of  a  rational 
judgment  that  Paul  sacrificed  the  world 
for  Christ.  There  was  not  a  })article  of 
sentiment  in  his  decision,  and  in  his  adher- 
ence to  it.  He  looked  at  his  stripes  and 
scars  as  medals  of  honor,  stamped  into  his 
fiail  and  mortal  body.  To  die  was  to  fin- 
ish his  ministry  with   joy,  and  then  to  be 


THE    SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  145 

forever  with  his  Lord.  He  never  whined.  c^ 
There  is  no  "  holy  tone "  in  his  epistles, 
and  there  could  have  been  none  in  his 
speech.  He  rejoiced  in  tribulation,  be- 
cause it  brought  glory.  He  apologized 
for  referring  to  his  sufferings  and  his  ex- 
alted privileges,  as  if  ashamed  of  institut- 
ing any  comparison  between  himself  and 
other  men,  or  of  calling  attention  to  what 
was  purely  personal  to  himself.  He  did 
not  ask  for  pit}^  when  he  lay  in  a  dungeon 
and  anticipated  martyrdom ;  he  wanted  to 
be  congratulated,  and  he  was  always  joy- 
ful himself.  Now,  this  was  not  a  matter 
of  temperament  with  him,  nor  were  his 
courage  and  hope  miraculously  imparted 
and  sustained;  it  was  the  inevitable  emo- 
tional result  of  his  way  of  looking  at  things. 
He,  like  Moses,  endured  as  seeing  Him  who 
is  invisible  ;  and  such  rational  perception 
of  the  eternal  is  always  and  everywhere 
the  essence  of  heroism.  He  who  walks  / 
with  God  is  mighty,  and  will  hush  men 
into  awe. 

The  apostle  himself  defines  spirituality,        / 
when  he  speaks   of   it,  as   "the    spirit  of 
power,  of   love,   and   of   a   sound   mind." 
The  statement    is    anti-climactic.     It    in- 


146         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

eludes  the  will,  the  emotions,  and  the  rea- 
son ;  but  the  mood  has  its  rise  in  mental 
sanity,  produces  love,  and  issues  in  moral 
energy.  The  first  thing  is  soundness  of 
mind,  looking  at  things  as  they  really  are, 
and  at  all  things  in  their  ordered  and  eter- 
nal unity.  Spirituality  is  simply  downright 
common  sense.  I  do  not  even  say  "  sanc- 
tified "  common  sense,  for  unsanctified  com- 
mon sense  is  the  baldest  nonsense.  "■  Be 
spiritual  "  is  only  another  way  of  saying, 
"Be  sensible,"  for  the  man  is  a  fool  who 
never  thinks  of  his  immortal  soul,  and 
who  puts  God  out  of  his  thoughts. 

It  accords  with  this  that  the  common 
designation  of  the  Hol}^  Spirit  is  the 
"  Spirit  of  Truth."  He  convicts  men  of 
sin,  righteousness,  and  judgment.  He 
takes  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and  reveals 
them  unto  us.  He  brings  them  to  our 
remembrance.  He  regenerates  and  sanc- 
tifies men  through  the  truth.  He  moves 
the  heart  by  enlightening  the  understand- 
ing. He  opens  our  eyes  and  unstops  our 
ears  ;  and  when  once  the  soul  has  seen  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,  responding  to  it  by  a 
prompt  obedience,  tlie  lips  break  forth  in 
song,   and   the    life    will    be    transfigured. 


THE  SPIRITUAL    ELEMENT.  147 

The  sword  of  the  Spirit  is  the  Word  of 
God,  His  revealed  and  living  thought, 
piercing  to  the  marrow,  dissecting  soul  and 
spirit,  discerning  the  thoughts  and  intents 
of  the  heart.  The  spiritually  minded  man 
is  he  who  accepts  the  judgment  resulting 
from  this  comparison,  and  who  gives  to 
the  revealed  thought  of  God  the  sole,  and 
continuous,  and  comprehensive  supremacy 
over  himself.  This  is  the  (f)p6vr]/ji,a  tov  irvev- 
/x,aro<i  in  which  every  sermon  should  be 
made  and  preached,  and  without  which 
it  is  not  a  sermon  at  all.  It  includes  a 
rational,  an  emotional,  and  a  voluntar}^ 
element ;  for  all  these  are  involved  in  the 
word  which  Paul  uses ;  but,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  emotional  quality  comes  in  by 
reflex  action,  while  the  rational  and  the 
voluntary  features  are  the  ones  with  which 
we  are  summoned  actively  and  energeti- 
cally to  deal.  Spirituality  is  the  fixed  and 
obedient  mental  habit  of  piercing  to  that 
which  is  essential,  universal,  and  eternal. 

Now,  the  invisible  universe,  so  far  as 
we  have  any  knowledge  of  it,  is  consti- 
tuted by  two  factors,  and  only  two, —  God 
and  the  soul.  Everything  else  resolves 
itself  into  the  interpretation  and  the  rela- 


148         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

tion  of  these  two  personal  subsistences. 
Law  and  government,  whether  human 
or  Divine,  are  not  separate  entities ;  the}^ 
inhere  and  are  identical  with  the  living 
thoughts  of  God  or  of  man.  They  are 
what  they  are,  simply  because  God  and 
man  are  what  they  are.  They  could  not 
be  other  than  they  are,  nor  can  they  ever 
suffer  change,  simply  because  God  is  what 
He  is  by  an  eternal,  voluntary,  moral  ne- 
cessit}',  and  because  He  made  man  in  his 
image.  The  task  of  spirituality  in  preach- 
ing, then,  is  this,  to  estimate  the  soul  as 
it  really  is,  and  to  estimate  God  as  He 
really  is. 

And  who  are  you,  and  who  are  they  to 
whom  you  speak  ?  AVhat  is  man  ?  You  may 
define  him  by  the  physical  element  of  his  nat- 
ure, whose  powers  are  insignificant,  whose 
days  are  an  handbreadth,  whose  achieve- 
ments are  vanity.  You  may  define  him  in 
the  terms  of  his  moral  consciousness,  under 
the  dominion  of  sin  and  guilt,  restless  in 
his  bondage,  yet  hopelessly  enslaved.  But 
in  all  this  you  have  not  reached  the  living 
thouo-ht  of  God.  You  are  more  than  all 
this,  though  you  might  never  have  dreamed 
of  it  had  it  not  been  revealed  to  you.    You 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  149 

are  a  child  of  God.  You  are  a  temple  in 
ruins ;  but,  as  John  Howe  says,  you  are  a 
temple  still ;  or  as  Horace  Bushnell  says, 
there  is  an  awful  dignity  in  your  degrada- 
tion even.  If  you  are  honest  and  fearless 
with  yourself,  you  will  be  habitually  peni- 
tent and  contrite,  in  view  of  your  repeated 
failures  and  shortcomings  ;  broken  in  heart, 
contrite  in  spirit,  because  you  are  so  great 
a  sinner,  falling  so  far  short  of  what  you 
ought  to  be.  You  will  never  outgrow  the 
fifty-first  Psalm.  You  can  never  become 
proud  and  self-conceited,  nor  rest  content 
with  3^our  best  work.  You  will  never  over- 
take either  your  personal  or  your  profes- 
sional ideal.  You  may  not  burn  last 
year's  sermons,  but  you  will  not  j^reach 
them  a  second  time,  until  they  have  been 
born  again  in  the  travail  of  your  better 
thought.  But  you  will  advance  beyond  this 
estimate  of  your  conscious  moral  imper- 
fection and  immaturity.  There  will  come 
to  you  also  the  thought  that  the  prodi- 
gal son,  ragged,  hungry,  and  disgraced, 
is  a  son  still.  This  is  the  transfiguring 
touch  upon  our  self-knowledge.  You  have 
looked  into  your  own  mirror,  and  have 
seen  an  immortal  soul  under  the  power  of 


150         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

sill.  /  Now,  look  into  your  genealogy,  and 
into  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  God  has 
never  surrendered,  not  qualified  in  the 
least  His  j)aternal  claim  upon  you,  and 
there  is  not  one  of  you  whom  He  is  will- 
ing to  lose.  There  is  a  place  in  His  heart 
and  in  heaven  for  you  ;  and  it  will  be  for- 
ever empty,  if  you  do  not  come  back  to 
fill  it.  "  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of 
God,"  is  the  repeated  refrain  of  John,  in 
gospel  and  epistle,  the  silver  bugle-note  to 
which  his  every  thought  marches;  and 
that  will  lift  you  to  the  highest  heavens. 
Think  of  3'ourself  in  that  wa}',  and  pov- 
erty will  lose  its  sting,  any  sphere  of  ser- 
vice will  be  great,  whether  on  the  frontier 
or  in  the  metropolis,  whether  among  the 
cultured  or  the  savage,  powers  will  be 
consecrated  and  grow  lustrous,  obscurity 
will  be  radiant,  fame  will  shine  with  a 
su})ernal  glory,  grief  will  have  its  mighty 
consolation,  life  will  be  an  unendinii"  son"', 
and  death  will  l)e  the  open  gate  to  your 
Father's  house. 

And  remember,  what  you  are,  as  thus 
read  in  the  light  of  God's  living  thought, 
everybody  else  is  —  the  beggar,  the  out- 
cast, the  millionnairc,  tlie  ld)orcr,  the  white 


THE  SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  151 

man,  and  the  black  man.  All  men  are 
made  in  the  Divine  image.  All  men  are 
dear  to  God.  All  men  are  redeemed  in 
Christ.  There  is  no  monopoly  in  the  Di- 
vine adoption ;  for  the  blood  of  Adam 
courses  in  all  veins,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  seal  of  a  universal  reconcilia- 
tion. Now  this  way  of  estimating  man  is 
the  spiritual  way,  because  it  fixes  attention 
upon  the  invisible  and  essential  kernel  of 
being ;  and  that  is  the  only  rational  pro- 
cedure. Under  such  an  estimate  you  will 
respect  and  love  all  men,  however  ignorant 
and  debased  they  may  have  become ;  and 
you  will  not  cease  to  pray  for  them,  and 
labor  with  them,  until  they  are  withdrawn 
from  earth.  For  upon  this  estimate,  there 
must  always  remain  an  infinite  chasm  be- 
tween the  most  abandoned  man  or  woman, 
and  a  brute.  It  is  this  perception  which 
distinofuishes  the  Christian  civilization  from 
all  preceding  and  contemporaneous  ones. 
It  was  a  theatrical  flourish,  when  Terence 
cried  out,  "Nothing  human  I  count  foreign 
to  myself " ;  a  hollow  mockery  of  senti- 
ment, when  you  recall  the  frightful  scenes 
of  the  gladiatorial  contests,  and  read  of  the 
cold-blooded   butcheries  of   the  Coliseum. 


152         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

The  thought  was  not  a  vital  and  vitalizing 
one.  There  was  no  regard  for  human  life, 
no  respect  for  woman,  no  pity  for  children, 
no  compassion  for  the  slave.  The  infinite 
value  of  the  human  soul  in  the  sight  of 
God,  it  has  well  been  said,  came  upon  the 
thoughts  of  nu'ii  like  a  new  and  startling 
revelation  ;  and  its  leavening  power  is  yet 
far  from  having  done  its  mighty  work.  It 
is  the  hardest  practical  thing  for  you  and 
me  to  do,  to  estimate  men  by  what  they 
are  as  immortal  and  moral  beings,  infinitely 
dear  to  God,  and  to  treat  them  accordingly. 
But  that  is  the  foremost  sign  and  evidence 
of  spiritual-mindedness.  It  will  make  you 
tender  and  solicitous.  It  will  make  you 
brave  and  impartial.  It  will  make  you  dem- 
ocratic. It  will  make  you  cosmopolitan, 
with  a  hand  for  every  man,  and  a  heart  for 
all  the  world.  It  will  make  your  preaching 
spiritual  because  it  will  reflect  the  mind  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  so  be  eternally  true. 

It  has  not  escaped  you,  I  am  sure,  that 
I  have  not  been  able  to  speak  of  the  esti- 
mate of  man  as  our  point  of  departure, 
from  which  we  sliould  proceed  to  the  mak- 
ing and  delivery  of  every  sermon,  without 
passing  over  to    the  view  of   God  which 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  153 

should  sliape  our  conscious  and  habitual 
thought.  I  have  transcended  the  testi- 
mony of  natural  psychology  in  affirming 
that  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God, 
and  that  he  is  the  child  of  God,  and  in  in- 
sisting that  this  is  the  only  rational  stan- 
dard of  valuation  for  ourselves  and  for 
others.  I  have  assumed  a  revelation  of 
God  in  defining  what  man  is ;  I  have  put 
my  theology  into  my  anthropology.  For 
sonship  involves  fatherhood,  and  the  filial 
dignity  can  be  measured  only  by  the  pater- 
nal rank  and  provision.  But  this  was  in- 
evitable ;  for  the  whole  truth  is  not  stated 
when  we  say  that  our  conceptions  of  what 
God  is  must  be  necessarily  anthropomor- 
phic in  their  content  and  expression :  it  is 
also  true,  and  it  is  the  deeper  truth,  that 
our  conceptions  of  what  man  is,  must,  in 
order  to  be  exact  and  complete,  be  theo- 
morphic.  Man  must  be  viewed  in  God, 
that  is,  in  the  light  of  God's  eternal,  living 
thought,  which  is  inseparable  from  his 
essential  being.  For  what  God  is,  deter- 
mines what  man,  created  in  His  image,  is 
by  original  vocation,  what  he  ought  to  be, 
and  what  he  may  become  ;  and  what  God 
is,  discloses  what  His  thoughts  and  pur- 


154         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

poses  must  be  concerning  man.  So  that 
the  knowledge  of  God  has  priority,  in  the 
logical  order,  over  the  knowledge  of  man ; 
but  in  the  chronological  or  experimental 
order,  the  relation  is  reversed.  For  the 
knowledge  of  God,  which  is  eternal  life, 
is  not  the  precipitate  of  deductive  logic, 
starting  from  some  metaphysical  concep- 
tion of  Him,  implicitly  lodged  in  the  ra- 
tional intuition  of  the  soul.  It  is  the  fruit 
of  inductive  reasoning,  based  upon  the  facts 
of  a  historical  revelation,  reaching  its  ma- 
turity in  the  person  and  ministry  of  our 
Lord.  He  reveals  the  Father,  and  in  so 
doing  He  interprets  man's  place  and  gra- 
cious prerogative. 

I  shall  have  more  to  say  of  this  farther 
on ;  at  the  present  I  wish  only  to  empha- 
size the  thought  that  what  God  is,  deter- 
mines the  mind  of  the  spirit,  or  the  spirit- 
uality of  the  preacher.  His  mental  tone 
and  temper  will  be  shaped  by  his  living 
thought  of  God.  There  is  no  department 
of  dogmatics  where  he  needs  to  exercise 
greater  care,  where  he  requires  greater 
accuracy,  docility,  and  comprehensiveness, 
than  in  forming  his  doctrine  of  God.  A 
partial  view,  or  a  distorted  one,  in  wliicli 


THE  SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  155 

the  scripturally  historical  perspective  is 
not  jealously  maintained,  will  vitiate  all 
his  mental  processes  and  his  spoken  words. 
He  must  prepare  himself  to  give  to  every 
revelation  which  God  has  made  of  Himself, 
its  natural  and  unqualified  force,  even  if 
he  should  find  it  impossible  to  combine 
them  all  into  a  perfectly  coherent  unity. 
It  may  be  that  the  Divine  majesty,  its  bal- 
anced and  rounded  moral  perfection,  while 
it  was  incarnated  in  a  human  life,  cannot 
be  reproduced  in  mental  concepts,  nor  pho- 
tographed in  the  speech  of  man.  The  point 
of  supreme  importance  is  that  God  be  rec- 
ognized as  the  Living  One,  the  Subject  of 
conscious,  voluntary  movement  in  thought, 
emotion,  and  action.  His  Being  may  be  so 
construed  as  to  eliminate  the  reality  of 
all  human  personality,  and  to  recognize  in 
second  causes  only  a  nominal  energy ;  and 
it  will  make  little  difference  whether  this 
pervasive  and  exclusive  presence  be  defined 
in  terms  of  substance,  as  Spinoza  does,  or 
in  terms  of  thought,  as  Hegel  does,  or 
in  terms  of  will,  as  Jonathan  Edwards 
does,  an  unethical  fatalism  will  be  the  re- 
sult ;  and  a  kind  of  speechless  awe  will 
characterize  the  resultant  piety.  The  glory 


156         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

of  God  will  be  regarded  as  the  final  cause 
of  all  things,  to  be  secured  and  displayed 
at  any  cost,  giving  no  account  of  itself  to 
angel  or  man  ;  and  I  do  not  see  how  any 
man  can  avoid  feeling  sometimes,  that  such 
a  God,  while  commanding  unselfishness  — 
is  supremely  selfish  Himself. 

But  this  is  the  God  of  metaphysical 
theology,  which  makes  Will  in  God  pri- 
mary, inclusive,  and  sovereign.  Such  a 
God  is  a  speculative  fiction ;  He  is  not 
the  God  who  reveals  Himself  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  in  tlie  record  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 
These  media  disclose  a  sovereignty  which 
has  given  reality  to  second  causes,  to  the 
life  of  created  reason,  and  to  moral  re- 
sponsibility in  man,  and  which  is  infinitely 
sensitive  and  conscientious  in  maintaining 
and  guarding  what  it  has  called  into  exis- 
tence. The  immanence  is  such  that  it 
eliminates  neither  the  Divine  personal  tran- 
scendence, nor  tlu;  full  reality  and  respon- 
sibility of  tlie  dependent  creature.  "In 
Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being"  ;  but  in  that  interpenetration  there 
is  a  Him,  and  there  is  a  We ;  the  per- 
sonal distinctions  are  rio-orouslv  conserved. 


THE  SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  157 

That  fact  is  of  infinitely  greater  practical 
importance  for  ns  than  a  speculative  theory 
of  the  nexus  between  God  and  the  world. 
An  inductive  logic  compels  us  to  rest  in 
theological  dualism,  just  as  we  are  forced 
to  recognize  a  natural  dualism  in  an  induc- 
tive philosophy  of  perception.  Theological 
determinism  is  open  to  the  same  objections 
which  lie  against  philosophical  idealism; 
it  does  not  deal  honestly  with  the  facts, 
and  the  logical  process  is  deductive,  not 
inductive.  The  facts  reveal  a  God  who, 
while  Sovereign,  does  not  regard  the  cre- 
ated universe  as  a  shadow,  nor  use  men  as 
machines.  Freedom  is  a  real  thing,  not 
merely  formal ;  and  even  God  does  not  in- 
vade its  prerogatives.  He  does  not  choose 
for  me,  nor  does  He,  in  any  strict  sense, 
choose  in  me.  In  a  word.  He  is  the  Liv- 
ing God,  alive  to  what  is  due  to  Himself, 
alive  to  what  is  due  to  everything  that  He 
has  made,  promoting  His  glory  by  promot- 
iuQ^  the  hig-hest  well-being-  of  the  universe. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  immutability 
supplies  another  instance  in  which  a  deduc- 
tive logic  has  thrust  the  living  God  prac- 
tically out  of  sight.  His  uncliangeableness 
has  been  conceived  as  erasing  all  distinc- 


158         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

tions  in  time,  in  thought,  in  emotion,  and 
in  action.  He,  we  are  tokl,  dwells  in  an 
eternal  Now ;  ^vith  Him  there  is  no  past, 
and  no  future.  Strictly  speaking,  it  has 
been  urged,  there  can  be  no  conscious  suc- 
cession of  thought  in  God,  no  real  change 
in  His  feelings,  no  separate  and  succes- 
sive volitions.  The  whole  conscious  life 
of  Deity  is  interpreted  "  sub  specie  eterni- 
tatis,"  in  which  succession  and  change  can 
form  no  conceivable  part.  The  past,  the 
present,  and  the  future,  are  represented  as 
held  in  the  grasp  of  a  single  thought ;  all 
separate  volitions  as  merged  in  a  single, 
eternal  act  of  the  will ;  and  no  varying 
emotional  states  are  recoo-nized  as  havino- 
anything  more  than  an  apparent,  anthro- 
pomorphic realit3\ 

You  may  call  such  a  Being  the  Living, 
Personal  God;  but  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  such  an  activity  differs  from  an  eter- 
nal and  hopeless  quiescence.  I  am  free  to 
say,  that  to  my  way  of  thinking,  an  eter- 
nal Now,  as  that  phrase  is  theologically 
used,  is  eternal  nonsense.  It  is  a  pure 
assumption  that  omniscience  destroys  the 
diffei'ences  between  memory,  present  per- 
ception, and   prevision.     It  is  a  pure   as- 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  159 

sumption  that  unity  of  thought  eliminates 
separateness  and  succession  in  conscious 
thinking.  It  is  a  pure  assumption  that 
unit}^  of  will  resolves  all  separate  voli- 
tions into  a  figure  of  speech.  It  is  a  pure 
assumption  that  the  ethical  blessedness  of 
God  makes  it  impossible  for  Him  to  be  the 
subject  of  emotional  change,  to  pass  from 
wrath  to  pity,  and  from  pity  to  love,  and 
from  love  to  indignation.  And  all  this  is 
squarely  in  the  teeth  of  all  that  God  has 
said,  through  the  records  of  Scripture,  and 
by  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  speaks 
of  Himself  as  grieving  over  sin,  as  plead- 
ing with  men,  as  roused  to  judgment,  as 
hearing  and  answering  prayer,  as  remem- 
bering His  covenant,  as  preparing  the  way 
for  future  displays  of  power  and  grace. 
He  is  never  surprised,  nor  is  He  ever  out- 
witted. Foreordination  is  eternal  and  in- 
clusive ;  but  that  does  not  destroy  the 
distinction  between  what  God  remembers 
as  past,  and  what  He  sees  as  present,  and 
what  He  knows  as  future.  The  separate 
and  successive  Divine  volitions  are  co- 
ordinated in  the  eternal  will,  —  not  one  of 
them  is  arbitrary,  revolutionary,  disturbing 
the  vital  unity  of  His  holy  purpose,  —  but 


IGO         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PKEAVIIING. 

that  does  not  destroy  the  difference,  in  the 
Divine  consciousness,  between  what  God 
has  done,  and  is  now  doing,  and  will  do 
hereafter.  The  will,  like  the  thought  of 
God,  is  in  living,  conscious  movement. 
Change  and  succession  are  in  them,  as  well 
as  unity. 

Nor  is  it  otherwise  with  the  emotional 
life  of  God,  when  scripturally  interpreted. 
There  is  pain  in  His  blessedness.  Sin 
rouses  His  indignation,  and  the  perception 
of  penitence,  as  with  us,  wakes  in  Him  the 
sense  of  gladness  and  provokes  His  instant 
approval.  A  rational  ethical  unity  under- 
lies and  pervades  all  this,  but  the  unity 
only  gives  eternal  validity  to  the  change 
which  comes  to  the  heart  of  God,  when 
the  sinner  becomes  a  penitent.  All  this  is 
as  clear  as  noonday  w^hen  what  God  says 
about  Himself  is  allowed  its  natural  force ; 
and  I  need  not  stop  to  show  how  such  a 
perception  of  God  makes  Him  intensel}' 
real,  in  vital  contact  with  the  soul  of  num. 

But  the  most  important  thing  yet  remains 
to  be  said.  Notliing  is  more  indispensable 
for  tlie  spiritual  life  of  the  preacher,  and 
for  the  spiritual  power  of  his  preaching, 
than  a  firm  gi'as]i  u])on  the  ethical  unity 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  161 

of  God's  nature,  and  so  upon  the  ethical 
unity    of    His    moral   government.      Here 
the    great    battle    has    been   between   the 
justice    and   the    mercy  of    God,  between 
His  holiness  and  His  grace.      The  atone- 
ment has  been  represented  as  their  eternal 
reconciliation,  or  as  an  economic  compro- 
mise between  their  conflicting  claims,  as  if 
God  were  doing  the  best  He  could  to  pay 
His  own  debts,  or  paying  no  more   than 
was  actually  necessary.     Whether  it  is  so 
intended    or    not,    such   a    representation 
makes  God  in  painful  conflict  with  Him- 
self, and  destroys  the  unity  of  his  ethical 
life.     Then,  again,  the  justice  of  God  has 
been    made    central,    and   love    has    been 
remanded   to  a   subordinate    place,   as    in 
the   Westminster  Confession,  and   in    the 
Calvinistic  theology  generally.     Grace  has 
been  limited  to  the  elect,  and  election  has 
been  supposed  to  embody  an  eternal,  sov- 
ereign, unconditional   decree.     Explain  it 
as    you   will,    the   sober,    plain    Christian 
judgment  pronounces  such  a  doctrine  hard, 
cruel,  irrational,  immoral,  and  blasphemous. 
It  is  an  outrage  on  man,  and  an  insult  to 
God ;  and  agitation  will  not  cease  until  in 
all  the  symbols  the  love  of  God  is  given 


162         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

an  equal  place  with  His  justice,  instead 
of  being  cicnvded  into  a  preliminary  and 
introductory  definition  ;  until  tlie  ethical 
unity  of  the  Divine  nature  gets  its  full 
recognition,  in  which  his  justice  is  his 
mercy,  and  his  grace  is  his  holiness. 

And  finally,  the  etliical  unity  of  the 
Divine  nature  and  government  has  l)een 
sacrificed  in  the  theory  of  probation, 
whose  logical  outcome  is  its  extension 
beyond  death  until  every  soul  has  faced 
the  ''historic  Christ."  The  antediluvians 
were  not  fairly  treated,  if  this  theory  is 
true  ;  the  patriarchs  had  an  exceedingly 
hard  time  of  it ;  the  millions  of  the  heathen 
have  been  cruelly  neglected  of  God,  though 
we  hope  that  He  will  settle  His  account 
with  them  l)y  and  hy  to  their  satisfaction ; 
only  a  ver}^  insignificant  part  of  the  human 
race  has  been  treated  in  moral  e(piity, 
though  between  this  and  the  final  judg- 
ment (rod  will  correct  all  the  blunders  of 
His  past  and  prcsi-nt  administration.  IJut 
who  has  authority  to  say  that  righteousness 
and  grace  are  thus  held  in  practical  sus- 
pense, and  relegated  to  the  unknown  fut- 
ure? If  all  this  issues  from  the  doctrine 
of  mortal  [)robation,  then   for  one,  I  \\\\\ 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  163 

eliminate  it  as  an  Arminian  heresy  from 
my  dogmatic  system,  rather  than  destroy 
the  ethical  unity  of  God's  character,  and 
deny  the  fact  of  a  present  and  universal 
order  of  righteousness  in  human  history. 

I  want  a  present  and  living  God,  a  God 
who  puts  His  whole  ethical  being  into  every 
moment  of    time,   who  deals   with   every 
soul,  infant  and  adult.  Christian  and  pa- 
gan, in  Jesus  Christ ;  though  I  may  not  be 
able  to  make  manifest  to  my  reason  this 
immanent  and  universal  blending  of  right- 
eousness and  grace.     I  appeal  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  to  the  natural  force  of   their 
language,  that  God  is  neither  an  omnipo- 
tent and  exclusive  energy,  nor  a  mechan- 
ically immutable  and  unemotional  entity, 
nor  an  arbitrary  and  partial  Sovereign,  nor 
a  being  in  whom  ethical  unity  is  a  figment, 
of   whom  the  organic  balance  and  living 
co-operation   of    moral    qualities    can    be 
affirmed  only  as  a  transcendental  fact,  and 
who  deals  with  men  on  purely  arbitrary 
principles,    suspending    a    present,    moral 
equity  of  administration  for  a  future  im- 
partial treatment ;  but  the  "  Father  "  from 
the  beginning,  and  the  Father  of  all  men. 
This  is  the  last  and  inclusive  word  in  the 


164        PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

self-revelatioii  of  God  to  men,  and  he  who 
contents  himself  with  anything  less,  robs 
himself  of  what  the  best  thoujTht  of  God 
can  give  him,  and  so  far  forth  he  fails  of 
conveying  the  full  spiritual  power  of  his 
message.  •  For  this  is  the  mind  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  that  it  hath  pleased  the 
Father,  l)y  the  blood  of  the  cross,  to  rec- 
oncile all  things  unto  Himself;  and  if  the 
history  of  redemption  is  the  fulfilment  of 
an  eternal  purpose,  the  vital  unfolding  of 
the  eternal  thought  of  God,  then  j-ou  have 
no  right  to  think  of  God  in  any  other  way. 
Fatherhood  constitutes  the  final  and  inclu- 
sive definition  of  His  nature,  and  of  His 
government.  The  law  which  commands 
and  exacts  holiness  is  paternal  legislation. 
The  severest  judgments  are  the  warnings 
and  the  punishments  of  a  Father.  His 
pity  and  His  patience  are  paternal  in  their 
quality,  scope,  and  continuance.  True,  it 
is  an  ethical  Fatherhood,  uniting  holiness 
and  love ;  but  it  is  a  Fatherliood,  not  an 
ethical,  imperial  sovereignty,  or  merely 
moral  governorship.  The  paternal  con- 
ception of  God  does  not  ignore  the  ethical 
element  of  lioly  autliority,  but  transfigures 
it  under  the  higliur  thought  of  an  infinite. 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  165 

universal,  absolutely  unselfish  love ;  and, 
in  so  doing,  it  legitimates  that  estimate  of 
man  which  has  already  commanded  our 
attention.  The  rational,  voluntary,  and 
joyful  recognition  of  these  organically  re- 
lated estimates  of  Avhat  man  is,  and  what 
God  is,  constitutes  the  essence  of  spiritual- 
mindedness,  and  every  sermon  issuing 
from  such  an  habitual  mental  and  moral 
temper  will  be  made  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  will  be  preached  in  the  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit,  and  in  power.  For  the  Word 
of  God  is  only  then  preached,  when  it  con- 
veys the  Father's  message  to  His  blind  and 
wayward  and  guilty  children. 

A  consideration  of  the  methods  by  which 
spirituality  may  be  cultivated  and  cher- 
ished, is  a  matter  of  too  serious  moment 
to  be  overlooked,  and  too  important  to  be 
despatched  in  a  few  sentences.  I  shall, 
therefore,  resume  the  discussion  at  this 
point  in  the  next  lecture. 


11. 


In  defining  spirituality  as  a  fixed  mental 
and  moral  habit,  to  be  carefully  distin- 
guished from  ecstasy  or  from  emotional 
excitement,  having  its  rational  ground  in 
the  clear  discernment  of  what  God  and 
man  are  in  their  essential  nature,  and  in 
their  mutual  relations,  and  its  ethical 
quality  in  the  voluntary  and  habitual  sub- 
jection of  the  conscious  and  active  life  to 
the  judgments  which  such  discernment 
forms,  I  have  propounded  no  theory  of  my 
own.  I  have  simply  given  to  the  language 
of  Scripture  its  natural  force.  Spirituality 
is,  in  the  carefully  selected  phraseology  of  / 
Paul,  <pp6v7]fMa  Tov  Tri^eu/xaTO?,  the  mind  of 
the  spirit.  The  word  ^povrnjua  lias  no 
exact  English  equivalent.  It  is  not  sy- 
nonymous with  vov<;,  the  equivalent  of  our 
word  understanding  or  reason,  the  faculty 
of  rational  perception  and  judgment.  Our 
166 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  167 

nearest  approach  to  such  a  use  of  the  word 
"  mind "  as  makes  it  reflect  the  meaning 
of  (f)p6i>7}fxa  is  in  the  frequent  popuhir  say- 
ing, "I  have  a  great  mind  to  do  this  or 
that,"  a  phrase  which  not  only  expresses 
a  rational  judgment,  but  also  announces 
an  intention.  (t>p6vr]/j,a  is  derived  from 
the  root  (f)p)]v,  which,  literally,  means 
"  diaphragm,'*  the  muscle  which  separates 
the  heart  and  the  lungs  from  the  lower 
viscera,  and  so  it  became  descriptive  of  all 
the  organs  clustering  around  the  heart, 
which  together  constitute  the  seat  of  phys- 
ical life.  By  a  natural  transition  it  was 
carried  up  to  describe  the  interior  consti- 
tution of  the  invisible  and  conscious  self, 
the  sum  total  of  the  soul's  rational,  emo- 
tional and  volitional  powers,  the  organ  of 
grief^  love,  anger,  and  courage,  of  mental 
perception  and  thought,  of  will  and  pur- 
pose. It  is  the  man  in  the  centre  of  his 
personality,  stripped  of  all  that  is  seeming 
and  accidental.  The  "mind"  in  you  is 
what  you  are,  in  your  thoughts,  desires, 
and  aims.  Not  all  the  thoughts  which 
you  have  belong  to  your  mind,  but  only 
such  thoughts  as  are  intensely  vital,  stir- 
ring your  deepest  emotions  and  impelling 


168        PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

you  to  action.  Not  all  that  you  feel 
belongs  to  your  mind,  but  only  such  emo- 
tions as  spring  out  of  your  thoughts  and 
shape  your  conduct.  Not  everything  that 
you  do  shows  what  your  mind  is,  but  only 
such  actions  as  are  the  outcome  of  rational 
conviction  and  genuine  love.  The  ''mind" 
of  a  man,  is  what  he  is,  in  the  organic 
unity  of  his  secret  thoughts,  affections,  and 
aims.  He  has  the  mind  of  the  flesh,  if  the 
gravitation  of  his  inmost  self  is  towards 
the  things  of  the  flesh,  the  things  that 
minister  to  selfish  ease  and  ambition,  no 
matter  how  refined  his  pursuits  and  habits 
may  be.  The  carnally  minded  man  is  not 
necessarily  a  coarse  man.  He  need  not  be 
a  glutton,  or  a  drunkard,  or  a  debauchee. 
He  may  be  a  man  of  Ijlameless  reputation. 
But  he  is,  everywhere  and  always,  selfish, 
self-centred,  and  self-seeking,  with  his  eye 
on  the  main  chance,  taking  care  of  number 
one,  an  altruistic  egoist  if  he  gives  any 
thought  to  his  neighbor,  counting  nothing 
real  which  does  not  bring  present  and 
tangible  advantage.  And  to  be  spiritually 
minded  is  to  have  the  thoughts,  the  desires, 
and  the  aims  of  the  spirit,  to  survey  and 
measure  all  things  from  the  centre  of  the 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  169 

invisible  and  the  eternal,  judging  yourself 
as  God  judges  you,  treating  your  fellow- 
men  as  God  would  have  you  treat  them, 
estimating  life  as  God  estimates  it,  honor- 
ing God  as  He  deserves  to  be  honored. 

A  curious  illustration  of  the  vagueness 
which  encompasses  this  important  question 
of  spirituality,  the  mental  fog  in  which 
many  preachers  labor  when  they  venture 
to  give  definite  outline  to  their  thought 
upon  it,  has  recently  fallen  under  my  eye 
in  a  report  of  an  elaborate  sermon,  preached 
by  one  of  our  city  pastors.  The  concord- 
ance had  been  freely  and  faithfully  used. 
There  were  Scriptural  quotations  in  abun- 
dance, and  these  gave  a  decidedly  evangeli- 
cal flavor  to  the  discourse.  There  Avas  a 
certain  rude  logical  order  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  biblical  material,  but  it  was 
purely  verbal,  and  of  a  real  analysis  there 
was  not  the  slightest  trace.  The  only 
approach  to  a  real  discernment  of  the 
problem  was  in  the  hint,  now  and  then 
obtruded,  that  spirituality  was  the  reverse 
of  ceremonialism  in  worship  and  conduct ; 
but  it  was  evident  that  such  interjected 
phrases  were  little  more  than  the  mechan- 
ical   repetition  of    current    platitudes   of 


170         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

speech,  and  that  their  real  significance  had 
not  become  clearly  outlined  to  the  preach- 
er's mind.  The  sermon  bore  tlie  marks  of 
faithful,  painstaking  work.  The  tone  was 
modest  and  quiet;  there  was  no  attempt 
at  theoretical  display ;  and  it  was  evidently 
the  work  of  an  earnest  and  devout  man  ; 
but  it  left  the  hearer  just  where  it  found 
him,  with  a  mass  of  l)iblical  texts,  not  one  >^^ 
of  which  had  been  compelled  to  yield  its 
mighty  secret.  It  was  unutterably  lifeless 
and  dull,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  was 
unintelligible.  It  lacked  defiuite  mental 
perception,  and,  therefore,  ended  in  mental 
cloudiness  and  confusion.  Much  was  said 
about  being  "filled  with  the  Spirit,"  but 
the  phrase  touched  no  living  chord ;  it  had 
a  mystical  ring,  as  descriptive  of  some 
strange,  supernatural  or  miraculous  opera- 
tion, in  which  tlie  soul  is  passive,  and 
which  defies  explanation  and  expression. 
It  may  seem  to  you  a  hard  and  narrow 
rule,  but  it  is  an  eminently  practical  and 
salutary  one  for  the  preacher,  as  I  believe 
it  to  l)e  inexorably  universal,  that  what  is  W" 
true  is  always  intelligible,  that  revelation 
is  unveiling,  not  mystification,  and  that 
the    time    of    the    sermon    is    worse    than 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  171 

wasted,  unless  the  message  is  so  phrased 
that  every  man  can  understand  it. 

There  is  nothing  shadowy  or  mystical 
in  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
in  the  resultant  spirituality  of  life.  It  is 
an  intelligent  and  intelligible  state.  It  is 
conscious  and  voluntary.  The  preacher  to 
whom  I  have  referred  might  have  made 
his  sermon  luminous  and  searching  by  sim- 
ply inquiring  what  ceremonialism  in  wor- 
ship was.  It  is  membership  in  the  visible 
church,  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  sul> 
scription  to  a  creed,  a  reverent  posture  in 
prayer,  a  decent  behavior  among  men,  the 
regular  and  reverent  participation  in  ordi- 
nances. It  is  devotion  to  externals.  It  is 
contentment  with  forms.  It  is  regard  for 
appearances.  In  or  out  of  the  church,  that 
is  Pharisaism,  the  mind  of  the  flesh,  giv- 
ing no  true  liberty,  and  cursing  the  soul 
with  drought  and  increasing  impotence. 
It  is  living  in  the  realm  of  the  seen  and  the 
temporal.  And  what  is  the  opposite  of 
ceremonialism  ?  It  is  the  worship  of  God 
in  spirit  and  truth,  the  converse  which  is 
the  natural  and  habitual  outcome  of  a  clear 
knowledge  of  what  God  is  and  of  what 
you   are,    the    conscious   and   mutual    ex- 


172         PIIILOSOniY  OF  PREACHING. 

change  of  thought  between  an  erring, 
needy,  penitent  ehikl  and  its  Holy,  Loving 
Father,  who  is  in  heaven.  In  or  out  of 
the  church,  that  is  spirituality,  the  fixed 
habit  of  dealing  mth  invisible  and  eternal 
realities.  To  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  is 
simply  to  be  under  the  dominance  of  those 
convictions  which  give  reality  to  God  and 
the  soul,  as  the  two  sole  factors  by  which 
the  univei-se  is  constituted,  and  b}-  whicli 
time  and  eternity  are  shaped.  For  when 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  pass  away,  God 
remains  and  the  soul  abides.  The  reason 
and  the  will  are  the  sphere  of  the  Divine 
impact  and  indwelling  ;  these  are  not  mys- 
tical, but  dynamic,  and  they  are  dynamic 
by  illumination  of  the  understanding  and 
by  securing  voluntary  obedience  to  the 
revelation.  To  be  filled  with  tlie  S})irit  is 
the  same  thing  as  being  guided  by  the 
Spirit  into  all  truth  ;  it  is  to  see  tilings  as 
they  really  are,  and  to  act  in  accordance 
with  that  vision.  Spirituality,  therefore, 
is  a  rational  and  voluntary  state.  It  l)egins 
with  mental  sanity,  piercing  through  all 
shams  and  deceptive  appearances,  to  God 
as  the  Holy  Father,  and  to  man  as  His  lost 
and  wandering  child.     It  is  easy  enough  to 


(^ 


THE   SPIRITUAL    ELEMENT.  173 

repeat  these  phrases,  but  they  are  not  real 
perceptions  unless  they  become  the  fixed 
and  habitual  temper  of  your  whole  mental 
and  moral  life,  the  standard  of  universal 
rational  judgment,  and  the  living  law  of 
obethence.  With  every  advance  in  the 
clearness  of  your  apprehension  of  Avhat 
God  is  and  what  man  is,  there  must  come, 
pari  passu,  the  prompt  and  voluntary  prac- 
tical response.  You  must  live  as  you 
think ;  you  must  be  obedient  to  the  heav- 
enly vision ;  for  God  and  the  soul,  father- 
hood and  sonship,  are  not  figures  of  speech, 
the  empty  generalizations  of  the  specula- 
tive understanding,  but  the  only  eternal 
realities  in  a  universe  of  change.^ 

1  The  nature  of  man  is  rational,  ethical,  spiritual ; 
it  may  be  regarded  as  voiis,  as  (TvveiSr]ffts  and  as  Tri'tC^a. 
How  do  these  differ  ? 

Considered  as  rational,  the  quest  of  the  soul  is 
Truth.     Its  watchword  is  Reality. 

Considered  as  ethical,  the  soul  fixes  attention  upon 
a  peculiar  quality  with  which  truth  is  invested,  giving 
to  it  the  force  of  an  imperative,  demanding  personal 
conformity,  and  enforcing  universal  self-judgment. 
Its  watchword  is  Obligation. 

Considered  as  spiritual,  the  soul  fixes  attention 
upon  God  as  the  eternal  fountain  of  Truth,  and  the 
creative  source  of  Moral  Law,  Himself  the  uncreated 
and  sovereign  Reality  and  Imperative. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACmXG. 


I  have  spoken  of  spirituality  as  a  fixed 
mental  and  moral  habit,  and  habit  involves 
careful  and  patient  cultivation.  I  proceed, 
therefore,  to  speak  of  the  methods  by 
which  this  quality  must  be  developed  into 
liealthy  and  vigorous  maturity.  Of  these, 
the  first  place  must  be  given  to  attention. 
If  even  the  physical  universe  does  not 
yield  its  secret  to  the  inattentive  and  su- 
perficial observer,  if  the  inspection  must  he 
repeated  and  discriminating,  with  the  per- 
sistent use  of  microscope  and  telescope 
and  the  most  delicate  instruments,  much 
more  true  is  it  that  the  invisible  realities 

rii/eCyua,  as  Julius  Miiller  says,  does  not  primarily 
mean  the  human  spirit.,  but  the  Divine  Spirit;  and 
man  becomes  spiritual  only  as,  by  his  free  act,  his 
rational  and  ethical  life  is  pervaded,  purified,  and  per- 
fected by  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Spirituality  is  a 
voluntary  state  of  rational  and  ethical  subjection. 
Hence,  the  Germans  translate  nvfvu&riKhs,  by  the 
word  (jeistlich,  not  (/eisti(i, — spirit-Jike ;  that  is,  con- 
formity to  spirit,  conforaiity  to  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Spirituality  represents  a  capacity,  which  may  and 
oufjht  to  become  a  reality  ;  but  not  a  constituent  ele- 
ment of  universal  human  nature,  like  tiie  rational  or 
the  ethical,  lieason  is  an  essential  i)roperty.  Every 
man  thinks.  The  process  is  involuntary  and  neces- 
sary. Conscience  is  a  universal  characteristic  of 
human  nature.  It  is  ineajjiible  of  increase  or  de- 
crea,se.     Judas   has   as  nuuli  conscience  as  Paul,  or 


THE    SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  175 

of  Divine  and  human  being  demand  hon- 
est, patient,  and  prolonged  attention.  No 
physiological  processes  can  give  us  so 
much  as  a  glimpse  of  the  soul,  or  cast  any 
light  upon  its  essential  constitution.  You 
might  as  well  attempt  to  construct  the 
science  of  anatomy  by  an  analysis  and 
synthesis  of  the  deliverances  of  conscious- 
ness. The  soul  is  an  ultimate  and  invisi- 
ble fact,  the  whole  evidence  of  whose  real 
existence  is  crystallized  in  the  personal 
pronoun  "  I,"  and  whose  real  nature  can  be 
understood  only  by  the  cross-examination 
which  reflection  employs.     If  psychology 

Peter,  or  John.  Every  man  judges  himself,  and  is 
the  subject  of  self-approval,  or  of  self-reproach.  The 
process  is  involuntary  and  necessary.  The  spiritual 
is  a  constitutional  capacity,  whereby,  in  a  free  act  and 
state,  man  places  himself  under  the  tuition  and  the 
guidance  of  God,  becoming  like  Him  in  thought,  in 
feeling,  in  volition,  and  in  life.  Its  distinguishing 
characteristic  is  the  supreme  place  which  it  gives  to 
the  Free  Will  in  man,  that  will  summoning  the  rea- 
son to  face  its  creative  Original,  and  securing  an 
instant  and  joyful  compliance  with  the  revelation 
thus  imparted.  The  process,  throughout,  is  rational 
and  ethical ;  but  spirituality  results  through  the  habit- 
ual temper  of  voluntary  subjection  to  Him  who  is 
Truth  and  reveals  it,  who  is  Holy  and  makes  us  holy 
by  making  us  like  Himself.  In  other  words,  man  be- 
comes spiritual  through  tlie  grace  of  Faith. 


176         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

has  been  less  rapid  in  its  advance  than  the 
physical  sciences,  the  reason  is  that  the 
processes  of  psychological  attention  are 
more  diflicnlt  and  exhaustive  than  the  \)to- 
cesses  of  sensuous  observation.  But  he 
who  deals  with  the  souls  of  men  must 
patiently  face  his  own  soul,  and  cannot  be 
excused  from  giving  continuous  attention 
to  what  it  has  to  say  on  its  own  behalf. 

Xor  can  there  be  any  real  conviction  that 
there  is  a  God,  nuich  less  an  adequate 
knowledge  of  ^^•hat  He  is,  except  l)y  pro-  ^^ 
found  and  habitual  attention  to  all  the 
media  through  which  His  eternal  Godhead 
is  disclosed.  The  conviction  is  intuitive 
only  in  the  sense  that  it  is  not  foreign  to 
the  mind,  intruded  upon  it  from  without, 
traditional,  or  the  refuge  of  mental  impo- 
tence, the  necessary  choice  between  two 
inconceivables.  It  is  intuitive  because  it 
is  inevitable  to  him  who  reflects,  and  be- 
cause repeated  attention  makes  it  oidy  more 
irresistible  to  thought.  It  is  not  the  pre- 
cipitate of  ol)servation  ;  it  emerges  in  ra- 
tional reflection.  I  need  hardly  remind  you 
that  the  elaborate  ontological,  cosmological, 
teleological.  and  liistorical  arguments  for 
the  Divine  cxistt'iui'  an-  no  longer  regarded 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  177 

as  invulnerable  and  conclusive.  They  as- 
sume what  they  prove ;  they  do  no  more 
than  trace  the  reflecting  process  by  which 
the  native  and  personal  conviction  justifies 
and  interprets  itself.  No  man  climbs  to 
the  throne  of  God,  by  the  pathway  of  the 
stars,  who  does  not  find  the  evidence  of 
His  existence  and  sovereignty  first  of  all,  in 
himself.  I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  any 
God-consciousness  in  him,  —  a  barbarous 
translation  of  the  German  phrase,  which 
strictly  means  only  a  native,  rational,  im- 
mediate conviction  of  the  Divine  existence. 
Consciousness  is  only  of  self ;  but  a  rational 
attention  to  what  this  consciousness  of  our 
personal,  mental,  and  moral  states  discloses, 
finds  its  root  and  synthesis  only  in  the 
affirmation  of  the  Divine  existence  and 
supremacy.  The  rational  and  the  ethical, 
as  we  are  'conscious  of  them  in  ourselves, 
are  uncreated  and  absolute  in  their  quality ; 
we  cannot  think  of  them  as  relative  and 
limited;  and  our  Avhole  conscious  life  is 
thrown  into  endless  and  hopeless  contra- 
diction, unless  we  postulate  the  existence 
and  the  sovereignty  of  Reason  and  Right 
in  the  uncreated  and  eternal  personal  God. 
The  process  is  not  one  of  speculation,  but 


178         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

of  definitioii  by  attention.  Attention  scat- 
ters the  mists,  and  reveals  tlie  uncreated 
glory,  the  eternal  and  sovereign  reality. 
In  biblical  phrase,  God  reveals  Himself  to 
man,  through  faith ;  to  him  whose  attention 
is  voluntary,  sincere,  and  habitual.  Here  is 
our  first  duty ;  to  metlitate  long  and  lov- 
ingly u})on  ourselves  and  upon  Him  wliose 
image  we  beai',  until  God  and  the  soul  shall 
master  us  with  their  realit3^ 

You  are  already  prepared  for  a  second 
suggestion,  that  if  you  would  be  spiritually 
minded,  you  nmst  be  men  of  prayer.  For 
such  attention  as  I  have  emphasized,  is 
itself  the  heart  of  prayer.  TJie  Socratic 
method  is  the  spiritual  method.  It  bristles 
with  interrogation  points.  It  is  perpetually 
asking  (piestions,  seeking  that  it  may  find, 
knocking  that  doors  may  be  opened.  For 
while  adoration,  and  confession,  and  thanks- 
giving, are  inseparable  from  true  prayer, 
petition  is  its  heart;  and  j^etition  always 
subordinates  its  request  to  the  Divine  will, 
the  demand  softening  into  the  inquiry  what 
tliat  will  is,  so  that  we  may  pray  as  we 
ouglit.  There  is  a  lower  use  of  prayer  in 
which  many  rest.  ThcN' coiiic  to  (tod  oiilv 
when  they  need  something,  when  the  guilt 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  179 

and  shame  of  sin  oppress,  when  grief 
embitters  life,  when  the  spirit  is  over- 
whelmed Avith  the  sense  of  its  weakness. 
The  Lord  is  a  strong  refuge  and  a  high 
tower,  into  which  we  run  when  our  spears 
are  broken  and  our  shields  trampled  into 
dust.  We  think  only  of  ourselves,  and 
our  speech  is  burdened  with  the  enum- 
eration of  our  wants.  But  it  is  far  more 
important  that  God  should  have  His  way 
with  us,  than  that  we  should  have  our  way 
with  Him.  For  God  knows  us  infinitely 
better  than  we  know  ourselves,  and  we  shall 
ask  most  wisely  when  we  let  Him  show 
us  His  mind.  The  twenty-third  Psalm 
is  the  sweetest  of  all  religious  lyrics,  be- 
cause of  its  discovery  that  God  is  the 
Shepherd  of  the  soul.  That  not  only 
secures  against  want;  it  drives  out  the 
very  thought  of  want,  so  that  David  has 
no  request  to  make.  The  path  is  always 
luminous,  the  table  is  always  a  royal  ban- 
quet, the  way  is  always  secure,  and  even 
the  grave  is  within  the  enclosure  of  the 
Divine  pasturage. 

This  is  the  higher  use  of  prayer,  in  which 
we  question  God  about  what  He  is  and 
what  we  are,  setting  our  psalm  of  life  to 


180         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACmXG. 

the  key  of  His  self-revelation.  He  who 
does  that  will  ])e  jubilant,  not  sad-toned; 
for  all  God's  thoughts  are  a  Gloria  in  Ex- 
celsis.  It  is  the  law  of  true  politeness, 
when  you  are  a  guest,  not  t(^  talk  about 
yourself,  unless  your  host  leads  the  way 
and  pui-sues  the  inquiry.  You  win  his 
favor  by  admiring  his  home,  his  grounds, 
his  librar}',  his  pictures,  by  falling  into  his 
line  of  thought,  and  enriching  yourself  by 
his  experience.  The  more  renowned  and 
successful  the  man  whom  you  meet,  the 
more  anxious  you  are  to  let  him  tell  his 
story  to  you.  If  I  could  have  Paul  as  my 
guest  a  week,  I  would  not  use  five  minutes 
of  the  time  to  tell  liim  wliat  I  thought,  nor 
Avould  I  open  Meyer  or  Godet  once  during 
the  interview.  I  should  do  nothinsr  but 
ask  questions,  and  let  him  do  the  rest  of 
the  talking.  I  should  be  perpetually  anx- 
ious to  know  his  mind.  And  to  know  the 
mind  of  God,  what  He  thinks,  desires  and 
purposes,  and  what  He  is,  is  the  highest 
function  f»f  prayer.  You  do  not  need  to 
tell  Him  what  you  are,  for  lie  knows  more 
than  yf)U  do  about  that ;  let  Him  tell  you 
what  He  is,  and  liow  lie  regards  you,  for 
you  will  never  know  either,  ludess  you  sit 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  181 

silently  and  attentively  at  liis  feet.  And 
tills  inquiring  attitude  must  be  habitual. 
It  is  well  to  pray  morning,  noon,  and  night ; 
it  is  well  to  pray  when  you  open  your 
Bible  and  choose  your  text;  it  is  well  to 
pray  with  pen  poised  over  the  blank  sheet ; 
it  is  well  to  pray  before  you  utter  the 
fii'st  word  of  your  message  ;  but  you  may 
and  must  do  more.  Docility  must  be 
ingrained.  Reverence  must  be  habitual. 
Prayer  must  be  your  native  air.  In  the 
utmost  strain  of  your  intellectual  activity 
there  must  be  a  receptive  and  inquiring 
temper,  which  makes  you  eagerly  respon- 
sive to  anything  which  casts  new  light 
upon  the  character  of  Him  in  whom  all 
live  and  move,  and  l)y  whom  all  must  be 
judged.  So  shall  it  not  be  you  who  speak, 
but  the  Spirit  of  your  Father  who  dwelleth 
in  you. 

No  mistake,  however,  could  be  more 
serious  than  to  imagine  that  because  spir- 
ituality is  the  fixed  mental  and  moral  habit 
of  dealinof  with  the  invisible  and  eternal 
realities  of  God  and  the  soul,  matured 
through  attention  and  prayer,  it  is  there- 
fore best  promoted  by  contemplative  de- 
votion.    Self-absorption,  even  when   deal- 


182         PIIILOSOPIIY  OF  PREACHING. 

ing  with  the  thought  of  God,  has  its 
dangers.  We  may  easily  mistake  our 
fancies  for  the  suggestions  of  the  Spirit, 
as  the  ignorant  and  untrained  are  per- 
petually tempted  to  do.  The  old  slave 
population  of  the  South  were  the  professed 
recipients  of  many  such  revelations ;  but 
an  honored  friend  of  mine,  whose  early 
ministry  was  spent  among  them,  said  that 
the  men  thus  honored,  confessed,  A\'hen 
they  were  questioned,  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
used  the  negro  dialect,  never  the  speech 
of  a  white  man.  That  pricked  the  bul)l)le, 
and  proved  the  inspiration  to  Ijc  a  mental 
hallucination.  True  spirituality  is  catholic 
and  cosmopolitan.  It  moves  along  that 
level  of  common  sense,  wliich  is  a  universal 
inheritance  and  possession.  It  deals  with 
realities  which  lie  close  to  all  earnest 
thought.  All  souls  are  alike,  and  God 
does  not  change.  He  cannot  be  to  me 
what  He  is  to  no  one  else.  His  impar- 
tiality as  the  Father  of  all  men,  forlnds 
the  notion  that  He  will  make  me  the 
special  and  exclusive  organ  of  a  revelation, 
which  wakes  no  response  in  any  other 
heart,  and  w  liidi  good  and  true  men  reject 
as   blasphemmis    and    silly.      So    I    would 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  183 

rather  mistrust   my   own   judgment   than 
break  with  the  general  drift  of  testimony 
in    the    living    community   of    believers. 
There  is  a  via  media  l)etween  hitellectual 
isolation  and   an  unreasonable   su])jection 
to  traditional  judgment.     True  thought  is 
like  a  magnet  introduced  into  a  mixture 
of   iron  particles   and  sands.     It  sifts  by 
attracting.      The    thought  which  attracts 
nothing  to  itself,  proclaims  itself  thereby 
unmagnetized   and   untrue.     What   I  see 
everybody  else  can  see,  if  they  will  only 
use  their  eyes,  though  no  one  may  see  it 
until  I  direct  his  attention  to  it;  but  if  no 
one  can  see  what  I  claim  to  see,  the  natu- 
ral inference  is    tliat   there  is  something 
wrong  with  my  eyes,  and  that  it  is  time 
for  me  to  consult  an  oculist.     No  one  can 
see  for  me ;  but  the  general  perception  is 
more  trustworthy  than  my  own.     For  if 
a  thing  is  real,  it  must  at  least  be  real  to 
every  one  who  is  constituted  as  I  am.     It 
is  not  otherwise  with  spirituality  or  the 
perception   of   invisible  realities.      These, 
too,  must  be  dismissed  as  illusions,  unless 
other    men    yield    their    prompt    assent. 
They  may  have  escaped  attention,  but  they 
must  compel  conviction  from  every  honest 


184         J'llILOSOJ'IIY  OF  PREACHING. 

and  thoughtful  man.  r[)i)U  no  other 
theory  can  we  cherish  the  assurance  that 
Christianity  is  destined  to  supi)h\nt  every 
other  religion.  It  must  triumph  by  its 
inherent  energy  to  subdue  all  rational  and 
sober  thought. 

"With  this  corresponds  the  New  Testa- 
ment doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Individ- 
uals are  the  organs  of  His  special  revela- 
tion, and  so  become  qualified  to  act  as 
inspired  prophets  and  apostles,  only  because 
the  entire  household  of  faith  is  under  His 
instruction  and  guidance.  The  apostle  does 
not  stand  alone;  he  is  only  the  organ  of 
the  Clnucli.  making  clear  and  articulate 
the  universal  conviction,  vague  in  the 
many,  definite  in  him,  and  through  him 
becoming  definite  in  all.  The  Church  is 
spoken  of  as  the  Body  and  the  Bride  of 
Clu'ist;  and  union  with  Christ  by  the 
Spirit  is  always  represented  as  involving 
spiritual  fellowship  with  the  Christian  com- 
munity. The  tuition  of  the  Spirit  is  not 
exclusively  individualistic  ;  it  is  also  ge- 
neric and  social.  It  is  carried  on,  corrected, 
and  completed  in  the  household  of  faith. 
It  may  seem  as  if  the  estimates  of  God, 
and  of  man,  which  I  have  so  fi'cquently 


THE  SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  185 

emphasized,  as  the  sources  of  spiritual 
power,  are  the  sjDontaneous  suggestions  of 
clear  thinking;  but  they  are  not.  They 
have  never  emerged  as  vitalizing  elements 
in  pagan  philosophy.  That  God  is  Father, 
and  that  man  is  His  child,  is  the  peculiar 
and  authoritative  testimony  on  the  nature 
and  relations  of  God  and  man,  which  is 
the  priceless  heritage  of  the  Christian 
Church.  You  and  I  have  learned  the  les- 
son from  her  lips,  though  it  depends  upon 
us  whether  it  shall  be  merely  a  traditional 
shibboleth,  or  a  vital  and  vitalizing  truth. 
It  is  not  true  because  she  has  taught  it; 
she  has  taught  it  because  it  is  true ;  but 
we  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of  it 
through  the  Word  wliich  she  has  preached, 
through  the  sacraments  which  she  has  ad- 
ministered, and  through  the  prayers  which 
we  have  caught  from  her  lips.  So  far  I, 
too,  am  a  Churchman,  and  di-aw  back  from 
the  erratic  tendency  of  an  isolated  individ- 
ualism. I  believe  in  the  Hol}^  Catholic 
Church,  the  communion  of  saints,  which 
is  the  household  of  the  Spirit,  and  to  whose 
consentient  testimony  I  bow,  as  embod}dng 
a  profounder  and  healthier  wisdom  than 
my  own.     And  in  so  doing,  I  learn  to  dis- 


186       PiiiLOSOPiiY  OF  riiEACiiixa. 

tinguish  between  the  shadinv  and  the  siil> 
stiince,  between  a  mere  mental  impression 
however  vivid,  and  tlu-  living  reality,  which 
is  universal  and  cogent  in  many  minds, 
between  an  illusion  and  a  revelation.  Other 
men,  too,  have  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  are 
guided  by  Ilim,  and  He  cannot  l)e  su2> 
posed  to  produce  isolated  and  contradictory 
impressions,  so  that  comparison  and  elimi- 
nation of  that  which  is  purely  individual, 
must  help  us  in  the  discovery  of  what  the 
Spirit's  teaching  really  is.  This  will  secure 
for  us  mental  modesty  and  moral  sobriety, 
indispensable  qualities  for  the  Christian 
preacher. 

The  critical  and  sifting  process  must  be 
carried  a  step  farther.  For  tlie  Church  that 
now  is,  is  herself  the  product  and  the 
veliicle  of  an  inherited  faitli.  In  this  mat- 
ter the  third  century  has  no  advantage 
over  the  nineteenth.  The  stream  must  be 
traced  to  its  sources,  for  in  the  origin  of 
the  Church  we  must  find  llie  root  of  her 
past  and  lier  present  authority.  The  docu- 
mentary records  of  our  faith,  therefore,  are, 
and  nuist  ever  be,  of  special  significance. 
If  we  must  test  and  correct  our  subjective 
mental  impressions  by  the  spiritual  testi- 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  187 

mony  of  the  Church,  we  are  further  bound 
to  test  and  correct  the  latter  by  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Holy  Oracles,  the  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  This 
legitimates  the  Great  Reformation  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  constitutes  the  suffi- 
cient and  unanswerable  reply  to  the  charge 
of  schism,  for  the  separation  was  made  in- 
evitable by  the  movement  of  return  to  the 
form  of  Christian  doctrine  as  contained  in 
the  Pauline  epistles,  to  which  on  any  theory, 
a  higher  authority  must  be  conceded  than 
to  any  subsequent  decrees  of  councils  or 
judgments  of  individual  men.  No  inter- 
pretation of  Christianity  can  maintain  its 
ground  which  does  not  fully  and  fearlessly 
challenge  comparison  with  the  transmitted 
testimony  of  those  wlio  founded  the  Church. 
Pure  Christianity  must  be  primitive  Chris- 
tianity, in  its  ruling  conceptions  and  prin- 
ciples, whatever  enrichment  subsequent 
thought  may  have  added,  either  to  creed 
or  ritual.  The  oak  is  not  the  acorn,  but 
the  germinant  seed  contains  the  type  and 
the  law  of  all  succeeding  development. 
That  which  is  an  involuntary  and  necessi- 
tated process  in  physics,  must  be  secured 
by  critical  comparison  in  all  movements  of 


188         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

voluntary  life.  The  State  perpetually  ap- 
peals to  its  fundamental  law,  to  the  inten- 
tion of  its  foundei-s,  whose  political  wisdom 
it  hesitates  to  call  in  question,  for  it  may 
be  assumed  that  the  men  who  are  sum- 
moned to  meet  great  and  grave  emergen- 
cies will  be  guided  to  discharge  their  duties 
with  a  sagacity  and  a  courage  e(iual  to  the 
task.  The  stars  on  the  national  banner 
may  be  increased  fourfold  within  a  cen- 
tury, but  the  flag  remains  the  same,  and 
the  ruling  ideas  of  the  constitution  con- 
tinue to  be  the  controlling  forces  of  the 
national  development.  Christianity  ^vith 
its  wider  outlook,  conscious  of  its  Divine 
origin,  and  ambitious  of  universal  suprem- 
acy, is  forced  to  the  most  careful  and 
exhaustive  criticism  of  its  documentary 
records,  which  contain  the  story  of  the 
planting  and  the  training  of  tlie  Church. 
The  New  Testament  must  be  our  final 
court  of  appeal,  compelling  us  to  reject  all 
that  is  subvei-sive  of  its  teaching,  and  re- 
manding to  the  sphere  of  pei-sonal  liljerty 
everything  ujion  which  it  does  not  speak 
with  ch'ar  and  decisive  autliority. 

Primitive  Christianity  is  the  only  rational 
formal   basis  of   Christian    union,   not    the 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  l89 

councils  of  the  first  six  centuries,  nor  even 
the    Apostles'    Creed,   whose    doctrine    of 
Christ's  descent  into  Hades  trenches  upon 
the  inferential  and  doubtful.     So  long  as 
this  result  has  not  been  reached,  the  debate 
between  Wittenberg  and  Rome  cannot  be 
concluded;  and  within  the  lines  of  Prot- 
estantism,   the     severe    cross-examination 
must  continue  until  the  ferment  and  the 
friction   of   thought   shall    undermine    all 
unauthorized  claims,  eliminate  all  foreign 
elements  in    doctrine,   policy,   and   ritual, 
restoring  the  simplicity  and  the  vitality  of 
the  apostolic  faith.     A  historic  episcopate, 
for  example,  is  an    illogical    compromise, 
and  an  impossible  condition  to   Cliristian 
Catholicity.      Its    antiquity    may   be    ad- 
mitted, its  beneficent  historical  influence 
may  be  granted,  but  it  can  never  be  made 
binding  unless  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles 
disclose    its    apostolic     institution.      The 
testimony  of  the  Church  is  not  to  be  lightly 
esteemed,  and  we   should  be    hesitant  to 
charge  its  leaders  with  deliberate  deception, 
but  we  are  bound  to  test  all  its  judgments 
by  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  which 
on  any  theory  of  their  origin,  is  primary, 
and  so  far  plenary  and  final.     If  we  may 


190         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACIIIXG. 

not  break  with  the  living  Church,  much 
more,  and  on  that  very  account,  may  we 
not  break  with  our  Bil)les.  Spirituality 
must  move"  within  the  sphere  of  scriptural 
testimony.  Our  mental  impressions  must 
be  tested  and  corrected  by  the  recortls 
wliicli  contain  the  primitive  revelation. 
Our  views  of  what  God  is,  and  what  man 
is,  must  combine  into  exact  and  harmoni- 
ous proportions,  all  tliat  is  disclosed  in 
precept  and  in  promise,  in  judgment  and 
in  blessing,  in  personal  discipline  and  in 
national  history.  God  and  the  soul  are 
the  great,  permanent  invisible  realities ; 
tliey  constitute,  for  us,  the  moral  and  eter- 
nal universe ;  and  of  these  realities,  the 
Scriptures  give  us  the  oldest,  the  complet- 
est,  and  the  most  authoritative  account. 
They  constitute  a  cai-efully  prei)ared  and 
sifted  library  on  these  important  themes, 
which  we  neglect  at  our  peril  in  the  study 
of  God  and  of  man  ;  and  spirituality  pre- 
serves its  healthy  tone,  guarded  from  the 
extravagances  of  unregulated  individual 
conceit,  only  by  a  careful  and  habitual 
attention  to  what  the  Holy  Oracles  teach. 
Tliey   nuist    be    our    celestial    telescope, 


THE  SPIRITUAL    ELEMENT.  191 

tlirough  which  we  discover  the  secrets  of 
invisible  being. 

One  more  step  must  be  taken.  For 
while  the  Scriptures  are  the  authentic  and 
authoritative  record  of  the  revelation  of 
God  to  man,  they  are  not  themselves  the 
revelation.  The  Divine  disclosure,  as  the 
record  plainly  shows,  passed  from  lower  to 
ever  hisfher  stagfes.  It  became  more  defi- 
nite,  more  exalted,  more  fruitful,  more 
energetic,  until  it  culminated  in  the  holy 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation.  Holy  men  of 
old  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  but  in  Jesus  Ghrist  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead  dwelleth  bodily.  It  is  a  long 
step  from  Moses  to  Isaiah,  and  a  longer 
step  from  Malachi  to  John.  If  we  had 
only  Moses,  we  should  have  much;  but 
haviufr  Christ,  it  behooves  us  to  honor  Him 
as  our  Master.  It  is  the  theology  of  Clirist 
we  want.  It  is  the  spiritual  vision  of 
Christ,  His  estimate  of  God  and  of  man, 
which  we  should  strive  to  attain.  And  by 
that  I  do  not  mean  the  separation  of  Christ 
and  of  His  teaching  from  all  that  preceded 
His  advent,  and  followed  after  His  ascen- 
sion. Cut  the  heart  out  of  the  body,  and 
both  become  lifeless.     Christ  is  the  heart 


192         PIllLOSOPllY  OF  PREACIIimi. 

of  the  prophetic  and  apostolic  Sciiptuies^ 
and  the  criticism  which  proceeds  upon  the 
principle  of  excision  will  have  neither  a 
living  Christ,  nor  a  living  Bible.  The 
God-man  emerges  in  the  fulness  of  time, 
and  lie  can  be  understood  only  in  the 
light  of  his  vital  environment,  as  the  hope 
of  all  tlu"  prophets,  and  as  He  to  whom  all 
apostles  bear  joyful  and  united  testimony. 
But  He  is  the  sun  in  the  hierarchy  of 
spiritual  teachers.  He  is  the  vine  in 
whom  we  must  have  our  abiding,  if  we  are 
to  bear  much  fruit.  His  flesh  we  must 
eat,  and  His  blood  we  must  drink.  At 
His  feet  we  must  sit,  and  His  Spirit  must 
transfigure  our  own.  We  must  not  only 
preach  Him,  but  we  must  preach  Avhat  He 
preached,  and  as  He  preached  it.  It  is  not 
enough  to  hide  behind  Him ;  He  must 
shine  through  us,  stirring  our  hearts,  shap- 
ing our  thoughts,  illumining  our  faces. 
Ringing  the  changes  on  the  sentences  and 
clauses  of  the  creeds  of  Chalcedon  and  of 
Constantinople  is  not  preaching  Christ. 
An  orthodox  Christology  does  not  consti- 
tute you  a  Christian  preacher.  Eloquent 
and  impassioned  eulogy  of  the  Cross  is  not 
preaching  Christ,  and  ilini  erucifiL'd.      He 


THE    SPIRITUAL   ELEMENT.  193 

must  subdue  you  until  your  whole  rational, 
emotional,  and  volitional  life  moves  alonsr 
the  level  of  His  own,  until  His  estimates 
of  God  and  of  the  soul  become  your  own, 
and  secure  your  glad  and  habitual  subjec- 
tion. For  He  was  God  and  He  was  man. 
He  understood  both  exhaustively,  and  in 
His  active  and  passive  obedience  the 
mighty  achievement  of  human  rescue  and 
redemption  was  secured.  So  the  world 
needs  to  know  not  only  what  He  is,  and 
what  He  has  done,  but  what  He  thought 
about  God  and  man. 

Nay,  more,  God  is  what  He  is,  and  man 
ought  to  be  what  He  is ;  so  that  every 
problem.  Divine  and  human,  finds  in  Him 
its  solution.  He  must  be  our  guide  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  For  crit- 
ical and  scientific  purposes,  it  is  well  to 
trace  the  revelation  of  God  in  its  historical 
development;  but  for  practical  purposes, 
and  in  preaching,  the  order  should  be  re- 
versed, and  the  voice  of  Jesus  Christ  be 
made  to  ring  in  the  ears  of  men.  Do  not 
tarry  in  the  outer  court.  Do  not  linger 
in  the  holy  place.  The  veil  has  been 
rent,  and  you  should  not  stay  until  your 
hands    are     on    the     mercy-seat.       Make 


194         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

Christ's  estimates  j'our  own.  Think  of 
Him  as  tlie  manifested  God.  His  tears  at 
the  grave  of  Lazarus,  and  over  doomed 
Jerusalem,  His  prayer  on  the  cross  for 
those  who  put  Him  to  death,  and  His 
d3'ing  charge  to  John  to  care  for  His 
broken-hearted  mother,  are  worth  more  as 
a  disclosure  of  what  God  really  is,  than  all 
the  labored  conceits  of  the  scholastic  phi- 
losophers. Get  your  theology  from  the 
parable  of  the  prodigal  son.  Think  of  jus- 
tice as  having  tears  in  it.  Make  the 
Fathcihood  of  God,  as  taught  by  Christ, 
and  illustrated  by  His  conduct  among  men, 
real  to  yourself,  and  your  preaching  will 
have  spiritual  power.  There  is  anger  in 
God,  but  it  is  always  the  anger  of  out- 
raged Fatherhood,  and  that  gives  to  the 
Divine  anger  its  moral  majesty  and  power. 
And  what  man  is,  you  can  best  learn  from 
Him  \\'ho  brake  l)read  with  i)ublicans  and 
sinners,  wlio  blessed  the  little  children, 
who  prayed  for  Peter,  that  his  faith  might 
not  fail,  and  whose  withering  cin-se  fell 
only  upon  one  class  of  men,  tlie  hypo- 
crites, souls  lioneycombed  witli  falsehood, 
in  whom  moral  integrity  had  been  deliber- 
ately crushed  out.     Tlie  world  needs  His 


THE  SPIRITUAL  ELEMENT.  195 

Gospel,  the  Church  needs  His  Spirit  more  ; 
and  His  Gospel  will  not  conquer  the  world, 
until  His  Spirit  pervades  and  rules  the 
Church.  Nor  will  it  ever  pervade  and  rule 
the  Church,  so  long  as  it  is  in  any  way  re- 
strained in  us,  who  believe  ourselves  com- 
missioned to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Christ's 
name.  You  must  have  Peter's  vision,  that 
nothing  which  God  has  made,  and  upon 
which  He  has  set  the  seal  of  His  ownership 
and  adoption,  is  common  or  unclean.  The 
man  who  is  not  ready  to  be  the  servant  of 
the  most  degraded  has  not  the  spirit  of 
Christ  in  him  ;  and  though  he  may  be  tol- 
erated in  the  Church,  he  is  unfit  to  take 
the  lowest  place  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Christian  ministry. 

Here  I  must  leave  you,  face  to  face  with 
Him,  whom,  having  not  seen,  you  love,  in 
whom  you  trust,  to  whose  service  you  have 
pledged  your  lives,  and  with  whom  you 
must  walk,  if  you  would  know  the  truth, 
and  secure  the  baptism  of  power.  I  have 
taxed  your  attention  long;  but  the  su- 
preme importance  of  the  theme  must  be 
my  apology  and  justification. 


THE   PRACTICAL   ELEMENT   IX 
PREACHING. 

Among  .Vmerifiin  })reachers,  Charles  G. 
Finney  will  always  IkiM  a  (leservedly  higli 
place.  For  wliatever  may  l)u  said  of  liis 
theological  views,  of  the  criuleness  of  his 
style,  and  of  liis  revival  methods,  tliey 
were  all  the  instruments  of  an  intensely 
earnest  nature,  and  tliey  were  wielded  with 
extraordinary  power.  It  was  liis  constant 
insistence  tliat  ministers  sliould  }»reacli  witli 
a  view  to  immediate  results  ;  and  that  this 
could  he  done  only  as  the  liearer  could  he 
made  to  see  that  the  theology  of  the  pulpit 
was  rational,  vital,  and  thorouglily  consis- 
tent. No  man  believed  in  sound  doctrine 
more  than  did  he,  hut  his  lawyer's  instinct 
made  him  feel  that  a  doctrinal  system  which 
])ut  a  strait-jacket  upon  liim,  and  prevented 
liini  fn >ui  securing  a  promj)t  and  practical 
response,  ought  to  he  Hung  asicU',  and  dis- 
carded without  a  moments  hesitation.  And 
196 


THE  PE ACTIO AL  ELEMEXT.  197 

therein  he  was  right.   '  There  is  sucli  a  thing 
as  dogmatic   tyranny,  against   whicli   the 
pulpit   is   summoned    to   exercise    eternal 
vigilance.     As  between  the  chair  of  dog- 
matic theology  and  the  puli)it,  the  primacy 
belongs  to  the  latter ;  and  whenever  a  sys- 
tem becomes  so  liard  and  unyielding  tliat 
it  withers  the  sinews  of  practical  appeal,  it 
has  not  only  outlived  its  usefulness  ;  it  con- 
victs and  condemns  itself  as  both  illogical 
and  inadequate.     A   theology  wliich  can- 
not be  preaclied  fearlessly  and  faithfully, 
which  takes  refuge  in  wire-cbawn  distinc- 
tions and  reservations,  Avhich  confuses  the 
speaker  and  confounds  the  hearer,  cannot 
be  a  true  reading  either  of  God  or  man. 
God  is  not  playing  hide  and  seek  with  us, 
and  we  may  not  speak  to  men  in  His  name, 
using  phrases  and  defending  doctrinal  state- 
ments which  perplex  an  honest  soul. 

It  may  be  that  Mr.  Finney  has  un- 
consciously overdrawn  the  picture  of  the 
preaching  to  which  he  Avas  accustomed  to 
listen  in  liis  early  manhood,  when  men 
were  urged  to  repent,  and  ikew  told  that 
the  very  ability  to  repent  was  tlie  gift  of 
an  unconditional  decree  of  Divine  elec- 
tion ;  when  thev  were  sunnnoned  to  believe 


198         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PR?: ACHING. 

in  ("liiist,  and  informed  in  the  next  breath 
that  tliey  couhl  not  believe  until  they  had 
been  .supernatnially  regenerated.  The  de- 
scription, however,  is  anything  but  a  cari- 
cature. Thousands  of  men  have  felt  the 
palsying  effect  of  the  system  against  which 
this  fiery  preacher  revolted.  The  memory 
of  such  preaching  comes  back  to  me,  with 
the  terror  and  agony  whicli  it  awakened, 
supposed  at  the  time  to  be  evidences  of  a 
Divine  operation,  but  wliich  I  have  long 
since  come  to  regard  as  diseased  mental 
and  moral  states ;  and  I  have  good  reason 
to  believe  that  this  style  of  preaching  is 
far  from  having  become  obsolete.  In  a 
recent  correspondence  Avith  the  head  of  one 
of  our  American  tlieological  seminaries, 
the  position  was  deliberately  taken  that 
all  tiiic  moral  freedom  was  lost  in  the  fall 
of  our  first  })arents,  that  the  only  liberty 
which  survived  the  apostasy  in  Eden  was 
the  formal  one  of  choosing  between  dif- 
ferent courses  of  sin,  leaving  the  soul  un- 
conditionally dependent  upon  an  act  of 
Divine  power  before  it  was  invested  with 
the  ability  to  repent  and  believe.  It  is 
possible  for  a  man  to  hold  such  a  specula- 
tive system,  and  then  preach  with  an  utter 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  199 

disregard  to  it,  on  the  principle  that  as  the 
Divine  decree  is  secret  and  unsearchable, 
every  man  must  be  addressed  a3  if  no  such 
decree  existed ;  but  in  such  a  case  it  might 
be  as  well  to  eliminate  the  doctrine  of  de- 
crees altogether.  The  longer  you  preach, 
the  pro  founder  will  become  your  convic- 
tion that  men  can  be  quickened  into  spirit- 
ual life  only  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  and  you  will  discover,  pari  passu., 
that  you  cannot  gra})ple  with  men  unless 
you  charge  u})on  tliem  the  full  and  exclu- 
sive responsibility  for  their  moral  state. 
These  are  the  two  poles  of  thought  between 
which  all  theology  swings,  with  the  con- 
stant temptation  to  eliminate  either  the 
one  or  the  other  in  the  interest  of  scien- 
tific unity.  The  worse  heresy,  however,  of 
the  two,  in  nw  deliberate  judgment,  is  that 
which  fails  to  emphasize  the  reality  of 
man's  moral  freedom ;  which,  for  example, 
appears  to  invest  him  Avitli  it  in  recogniz- 
ing his  natural  ability,  and  then  reduces  it 
to  zero  by  the  doctrine  of  moral  impotence. 
But  whether  you  agree  with  me  in  this 
attitude  or  not,  the  point  -ef  urgency  is 
this,  that  your  theology  must  be  the  out- 
come of  your  preaching,  not  its  antecedent, 


200         PHILOSOrilY  OF  PREACHING. 

superimposed  condition  and  limitation.  It 
must  be  forged  anew,  link  by  link,  in  your 
earnest  grapple  with  men.  The  Word  of 
God  is  a  hammer,  a  coal  of  fire,  a  two- 
edcfed  sword.  A  hammer  breaks ;  fire 
burns ;  the  sword  pierces ;  and  you  must 
have  a  theology  which  does  all  that.  Do 
not  underetand  me  as  undervaluing  thor- 
ough and  systematic  theological  training. 
The  years  which  you  are  sj)ending  in  these 
quiet  halls,  and  under  the  instruction  of 
tried  and  trained  teachers,  are  years  which 
you  should  improve  to  the  utmost.  They 
will  familiarize  you  with  the  great  systems 
of  thought,  which  have  been  patiently 
wrought  out  amid  the  stress  and  strain  of 
fierce  controversy  ;  and  there  is  nothing  so 
conducive  to  mental  sobriety  and  balance 
as  the  careful  stud}'  of  historical  theology. 
The  sublime  unity  of  the  Christian  faith 
will  command  growing  and  grateful  recog- 
nition amid  the  widest  diversity  of  state- 
ment. The  discovery  will  give  you  anchor- 
age for  all  the  years  to  come ;  it  will 
prevent  you  from  mistaking  eccentricity 
for  originality,  and  will  guard  you  from 
that  "waste  of  intellectual  energy,  which 
ignorantly  spends  its  strength  in  rchabili- 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  201 

tating  old  and  exploded  dogmas.  But 
this  conservative  temper,  provoked  and 
fostered  by  historical  study,  will  also  make 
you  more  genuinely  and  profoundly  cath- 
olic. It  will  make  you  impatient  of 
theological  partisanship.  Robertson,  of 
Brighton,  made  frequent  use  of  the  prin- 
ciple, which  he  borrowed  from  the  Hege- 
lian philosophy,  that  all  true  thought 
proceeds  from  thesis  and  antithesis,  to 
synthesis,  from  affirmation  and  denial,  to 
a  more  comprehensive  formula.  It  is  Atha- 
nasius  against  Arius,  Augustine  against 
Pelagius,  Anselm  against  Grotius  and  Soci- 
nus,  Luther  against  Zwingle,  Calvin  against 
Wesley ;  and  the  heretics  manage  in  time 
to  tone  down  the  extreme  positions  of  their 
antagonists.  The  living  thought  of  our 
time  refuses  to  be  confined  in  the  vocabu- 
lary of  any  preceding  theological  school ; 
and  what  we  have  been  pleased  to  call 
consistent  Calvinism,  or  improvements  upon 
the  Genevan  theology,  is  only  a  euphemism 
covering  the  practical  abandonment  of  cer- 
tain positions  once  deliberately  taken  and 
stoutly  defended.  In  this  matter  Prince- 
ton has  been  as  great  a  sinner  as  New 
Haven ;  and  Charles  Hodge  was  as  much 


202         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

an  innovator  as  Nathaniel  W.  Taylor; 
while  the  younger  Hodge  found  it  neces- 
sary at  almost  every  step  to  say  that  he 
(lid  not  quite  agree  with  liis  father,  or  that 
he  preferred  a  slightly  different  statement. 
Calvinism  has  been  Arminianized,  and  Ar- 
minianism  has  become  Calvinized;  and  the 
patient  reading  of  Wigger's  monograph 
on  Augustinianism  has  convinced  many  of 
us  that  Pelagius  was  not  so  great  a  heretic 
y^s  we  once  imagined.  There  is  something 
to  me  very  suggestive  in  the  fact  that  of 
all  the  fathers,  as  we  call  them,  the  most 
modern  is  Chrysostom,  whi>  was  a  great 
theologian  only  as  he  was  a  great  preacher, 
working  out  his  theology  under  the  pres- 
sure of  tremendous  practical  emergenc}'. 
No  system  of  theology  can  be  absorbed, 
which  must  not  be  again  broken  to  pieces, 
and  passed  through  the  fiery  crucible  of 
personal  meditation,  shaping  itself  into  logi- 
cal forms  and  phrases  of  your  own,  before 
you  can  ilnd  the  truest  freedom  in  preach- 
ing. You  must  wear  yoiu'  own  coat,  fitted 
to  your  own  person;  and  yon  nnist  have 
your  own  theology. 

The  conservatism  and  the  catholicity  of 
wliicli    I   have  spoken,  should  be  at  once 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  203 

an  encouragement  to  independence  and  a 
salutary  restraint  upon  it.  The  substance 
of  your  message  can  never  be  of  your  in- 
vention. But  the  treasure  has  come  to 
you  in  earthen  vessels,  and  even  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Bible  may  be  followed  in  the 
spirit  of  mechanical  bondage.  It  is  the 
prophetic  and  apostolic  thought  which  you 
must  seize,  and  then  reproduce  it  in  your 
own  vernacular.  For  language  is  every- 
where mobile.  It  is  in  perpetual  flux.  It 
bears  the  impress  of  time.  The  dictionary 
is  not  .always  an  infallible  court  of  appeal. 
Classical  usage  may  mislead  you.  And  if 
this  is  true,  even  of  the  Scriptures,  much 
more  is  it  true  of  the  long  line  of  the  great 
teachers  of  the  Church,  who  have  given 
their  best  powers  to  the  exposition  of  the 
Gospel.  Every  one  of  them  shows  the  in- 
fluence of  his  training,  of  his  mental  and 
moral  peculiarities,  of  the  philosophy  which 
dominated  him,  and  of  the  logical  meth- 
ods current  in  his  time. 

In  no  department  of  language  is  this 
element  of  change  more  patent  than  in 
the  use  made  of  illustrations.  At  one 
time  they  are  imperial,  as  in  tlie  psalms 
and  the  prophets  ;  at  another  time  they  are 


204         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

legal,  as  in  the  epistles  of  Paul  and  in 
the  Augustinian  theology ;  at  another  time 
they  are  conimercial  or  governmental,  as 
in  more  recent  years.  Thus  on  the  basis 
of  Paul's  comparison  between  Adam  and 
Christ,  introduced  by  way  of  illustration, 
tlie  wliole  doctrine  of  sin  and  of  redemp- 
tion has  been  constructed,  with  the  notion 
of  imputation  rigorously  carried  through 
every  part.  So,  again,  the  idea  of  a  cov- 
enant, as  embodying  the  peculiar  feature 
of  Jewish  national  life,  has  been  carried 
back  into  Eden,  and  into  the  counsels  of 
eternity,  resolving  all  moral  history  into 
the  execution  and  fuHilment  of  a  con- 
tract. Illustrations  are  impressive  and 
useful,  so  long  as  they  are  used  by  way  of 
suggestion ;  but  they  are  mischievous  when 
they  are  charged  with  the  office  of  logical 
construction  ;  and  a  very  large  part  of  the 
preacher's  intellectual  task  consists  in  seiz- 
ing the  vital  truth,  whieh  hides  behind  all 
analogies,  and  wliich  must  not  be  allowed 
to  l^ecome  imprisoned  in  any,  using  them 
all,  dis[)ensing  with  them  all,  and  creating 
more  fitting  ones,  as  the  case  may  require. 
In  all  this,  one  thing  requires  emphasis, 
—  you    nuist    be   theologians.     You    niust 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  205 

have  A  clear-cut,  definite,  symmetrical  body 
of  religious  convictions,  supported  by  a 
close  and  patient  study  of  the  Bible.  You 
will  be  despised  if  your  mental  equipment 
consists  of  rags  ;  you  will  be  laughed  at 
if  it  is  made  up  of  an  incongruous  assort- 
ment of  patches.  Your  doctrinal  system 
may  be  very  meagre,  and  it  may  be 
very  comprehensive  and  exhaustive ;  but 
whether  the  one  or  the  other,  it  must  be 
homogeneous  and  consistent,  bearing  in 
its  every  part  the  impress  of  your  per- 
sonal elaboration,  as  the  famous  shield  of 
classic  story  is  said  to  have  been  so  forged 
that  were  it  broken  into  a  thousand  frag- 
ments, every  one  of  them  would  have  pro- 
claimed the  name  of  its  maker.  You  can 
make  no  greater  mistake  than  to  abandon 
the  study  of  systematic  theology  upon 
your  graduation.  In  science,  in  art,  you 
may  be  content  that  your  hearers  shall  be 
greatly  your  superiors ;  but  in  yonv  mi- 
nute and  systematic  knowledge  of  the 
Biljle,  the  occupancy  of  a  pulpit  compels 
you  to  seek  for  such  mastery  that  your 
aptness  to  teach  will  be  recognized  by  all. 
Now  and  then  I  meet  a  man  who  says, 
"  Well,  since   I  left  the  seminary  I  have 


206         I'lllLOSOPllY  OF  PREACIIIXG. 

dismissed  tlieology,  and  luive  been  content 
to  read  the  New  Testament."  But  an 
hour's  talk  lias  convinced  me  that  the  Xew 
Testament  had  fallen  into  the  same  neg- 
lect, that  the  reading  had  become  scrappy 
and  superficial,  that  thought  had  become 
hazy,  uncertain,  and  confusing,  and  that 
the  preaching  had  lost  its  manly  vigor. 
No  man  can  read  the  psalms,  the  propliets, 
the  epistles,  without  girding  liis  intel- 
lectual loins,  and  without  being  forced  to 
search  for  and  seize  the  ruling  ideas  by 
which  all  the  separate  uttei-ances  are 
shaped  and  co-ordinated.  Nothing  is  of 
greater  practical  importance  tlian  this  per- 
sonal, independent  mastery  of  the  vital 
theology  which  is  contained  in  the  Holy 
Oracles.  In  the  prosecution  of  tliis  en- 
deavor, the  best  books  will  soon  come 
under  your  notice,  and  lind  their  way  upon 
your  library  shelves,  critical,  exegetical, 
historical,  and  theological.  Nor  will  you 
be  able  to  conduct  these  inquiries  with- 
out constant  reference  to  psychology  and 
ethics;  for  it  is  still  true  that  no  difficulty 
emei'Cfes  in  theologfy  wliicli  is  not  also  a 
problem  in  ]iliilosopliy.  and  in  which  ctlii- 
cal  concejilions  do  not  play  a  most   im})or- 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  207 

tant  part.  Nor  can  you  afford  to  ignore 
political  economy,  in  either  of  its  two 
great  departments,  civil  and  economic  sci- 
ence. For  not  only  are  these  integral  parts 
of  the  Mosaic  code ;  but  the  record  of 
Scripture  is  largely  a  revelation  of  God  in 
His  treatment  of  nations,  and  a  disclos- 
ure of  the  forces  by  which  national  pros- 
perity, de<3adence,  and  ruin  have  been 
determined.  The  science  of  government 
is  a  moral  science,  because  it  deals  with 
man,  and  no  governmental  statutes  may 
trench  upon  the  moral  dignity  of  the  hu- 
man subject.  Nor  can  economic  science, 
in  its  discussions,  ignore  the  moral  factor, 
discoursing  of  capital  and  labor,  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution,  in  terms  of  im- 
personal speech  ;  for  it  is  the  man,  who  is 
capitalist  or  laborer,  producer  or  con- 
sumer; and  economic  regulations  and  cus- 
toms must  not  be  permitted  to  crush  or 
deface  the  manhood  of  the  lowliest. 

In  the  controversy  on  electrical  light- 
ing, the  courts  of  New  York  decided  that 
corporate  rights  were  limited  by  public 
safety  ;  and  that  whenever  it  became  clear 
that  human  life  was  endangered  by  any 
corporation,  the  latter  became  a  pnblic  nui- 


208      rniLOsopiiY  of  preaciiixo. 

sance,  which  any  man  had  a  right  to  abate. 
Man  is  the  only  sacred  tiling  on  the  globe, 
Avhose  natural  rights  may  ni^t  be  ignored, 
who  may  neither  be  enslaved  nor  imbruted. 
We  may  do  what  we  will,  with  all  that 
grows  in  the  soil,  or  is  found  in  the  for- 
ests, or  is  hidden  in  the  earth,  or  flies  in 
the  air,  or  swims  in  the  sea ;  but  he  who 
sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his 
blood  be  shed.  It  is  the  fearful  lesson  of 
universal  history,  that  there  is  something 
in  man  which  resents  the  touch  of  oppres- 
sion, so  that  tyranny  always  builds  its 
throne  upon  an  eartlupiake.  There  is  no 
l)east  so  ferocious,  no  serpent  so  venomous, 
that  3'ou  cannot  exterminate  them  or  drive 
them  into  harmless  seclusion ;  l)ut  these 
arts  cannot  safely  be  plied  with  men.  The 
memory  of  wrong  abides ;  the  power  of 
retaliation  slowly  gathers  ;  the  whisper  be- 
comes a  wail ;  the  wail  mounts  into  a  ciy 
of  rage  ;  and  the  rage  bursts  into  blind  and 
ruthless  vengeance. 

Let  us  not  (U'ccivc  ourselves.  Tlie 
forces  which  dcsti-oycd  I'^^gypt  and  Baby- 
lon, which  hastened  the  fall  of  Rome,  and 
whicli  lieaved  in  the  l-'rcncli  Revolution, 
slumber    in    evcrv   human    brrasl,    williin 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  209 

which  rankles  the  sense  of  wrong.  Wliat 
the  white  man  will  not  tolerate,  the  black 
man  will  not  forever  endure ;  what  the 
rich  man  resents,  the  poor  man  will  not 
quietly  suffer  ;  and  however  proud  we  may 
be  of  our  Anglican  and  American  civil- 
ization, w^e  must  not  forget  that  disdain  of 
man,  and  injustice  to  him,  develop  a  storm 
centre  before  whose  fury  nothing  can 
stand.  This  is  the  practical  side  of  relig- 
ion, to  love  your  neighbor  as  yourself,  not 
to  carry  him,  but  to  give  him  all  the  elbow 
room  which  you  demand  for  yourself ;  and 
this  is  not  a  sentimental  duty,  a  grace  of 
refined  life,  an  ethical  superfluity,  but  the 
sternest  of  all  political  and  industrial  im- 
peratives, apart  from  which  there  can  be 
no  permanent  security  to  person  or  prop- 
erty. To  this  bold  defence  of  universal 
manhood,  your  vocation  consecrates  you., 
That  must  be  your  message  to  those  who 
bear  rule  in  the  state,  and  who  control  the 
industries  of  the  country,  taking  care 
meanwhile  not  to  meddle  with  questions 
of  method  and  of  application,  for  which 
your  hearers  are  presumed  to  be  better 
qualified  than  you  possibly  can  be.  For 
the  Christian  preacher  should  never  permit 


210         PIIILOSOl'llY   OF  PREACHING. 

luin.self  to  sink  to  the  level  of  a  mere 
social  and  industrial  reformer.  He  will  do 
his  best  work  if  he  resolutely  refrains  from 
becoming  a  partisan,  from  identifying  him- 
self with  methocLs  and  measures  which 
come  within  the  realm  of  expedienc}',  and 
the  endorsement  or  criticism  of  which  does 
not  involve  the  application  of  universal 
ethical  principles.  \o\\  are  to  keep  your 
eye  fixed  upon  the  man,  made  in  tlie  image 
of  God,  and  therefore  inviolable ;  not  upon 
his  environment,  which  is  incidental  and 
subordinate,  and  which  in  a  perfect  society 
would  remain  as  varied  as  are  the  capac- 
ities and  endowments,  the  industry  and 
energy,  of  the  individuals  who  constitute 
the  social  organism.  I  do  not  say  that 
occasions  may  not  arise  when  you  must 
range  yourselves  on  one  side  of  a  great 
popular  contest  or  on  the  other,  when  to 
be  silent  would  be  cowardice  and  Ijctrayal 
of  your  trust;  for  the  pulpit  should  be 
God's  mouthpiece  against  tyranny  and  op- 
pression, whether  ecclesiastical  or  civil  or 
social  or  industrial.  Of  tliis  you  must 
be  the  judges;  but  you  ought  to  be  per- 
fectly sure  that  an  intelligent  zeal  for 
God  and    man    is  tlic    lire   wliiili  1)urns  in 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  211 

your  bones,  and  wliicli  unseals  your  lips, 
and  that  it  is  not  a  feverish  excitement  pro- 
duced by  the  heated  and  unwholesome 
atmosphere  of  the  time. 

You  will  conclude,  from  what  I  have 
said,  that  a  pretty  broad  field  of  intel- 
lectual activity  awaits  your  entrance,  in 
Avhich  your  powers  will  be  taxed  to  the 
utmost,  and  incessantly.  That  is  just  the 
conviction  which  I  wish  to  impress  upon 
you.  The  preacher's  mission  is  no  sin- 
ecure. It  is  not  an  elegant  leisure  to 
which  you  are  summoned,  where  you  may 
indulge  your  scholarly  tastes,  and  become 
the  centre  of  a  select  and  refined  circle. 
You  are  to  be  fishers  of  men,  and  the 
most  costly  tackle  in  the  market  is  Avorth- 
less  if  the  trout  do  not  leap  when  3^ou  cast 
the  fly.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  needed 
wherever  jow  go,  and  you  must  so  preach 
it  as  to  set  men  to  thinking  about  the  mes- 
sage which  you  have  brought  to  them. 
Alas  for  you  if  they  only  j^raise  the  ser- 
mon, or  the  grace  of  your  polished  utter- 
ance; you  must  plant  barbed  arrows  in 
their  hearts,  which  shall  leave  behind  them 
the  pain  of  a  godly  sorrow.  God  and 
Christ,  sin  and  salvation,  redemption  and 


212      PHiLosoriiY  OF  rnEArmxG. 

judgnieiit,  luust  be  made  intensely  reiil  to 
them  ;  and  you  can  make  real  to  others 
only  what  is  vivid  to  yourself.  So  I  say 
again,  and  -would  repeat  it  a  thousand 
times :  Be  theologians.  Let  your  theol- 
ogy be  practical,  never  swinging  in  air, 
but  let  there  be  theology.  You  must 
have  something  to  say,  and  the  thing 
which  you  say  must  be  an  expression 
of  the  thought  of  God,  and  of  the  mind 
of  Christ;  which  again  amounts  to  this, 
that  the  Christian  preacher  must  be  a 
Christian  theologian. 

"When,  twenty-five  years  ago,  I  was 
graduated  from  the  theological  seminary, 
and  ordained  as  pastor  over  a  quiet  sub- 
urban church  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson 
River,  I  determined  that  my  first  work 
should  be  a  close  and  patient  study  of  the 
Person  of  Christ.  I  felt  that  I  must  know 
who  ni}-  master  was.  Tlic  lirst  book  I 
purchased  was  Dorncr's  History  of  the 
Person  of  Christ,  which  still  remains  the 
best  monograph  on  the  subject.  For  more 
than  two  years  I  plodded  along,  reading 
right  and  left,  as  my  time  and  resources 
would  periiit,  in  systematic  and  historical 
theology,    witli    close    and    constant    refer- 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  213 

ence  to  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  as  writ- 
ten in  their  chronological  order.  I  have 
never  regretted  the  choice  I  made,  nor  the 
stndies  with  which  I  followed  it,  when  I 
made  Miiller's  monograph  on  the  doctrine 
of  sin  the  subject  of  an  equally  close 
reading.  I  doubt  whether  a  theological 
graduate  can  do  better  now,  than  to  be- 
gin his  pastoral  studies  with  Christology. 
Until  that  is  mastered,  I  would  shelve 
eschatology.  For  in  my  deliberate  judg- 
ment, the  constitution  of  our  Lord's  Person 
is  the  one  thing  on  which  the  most  defi- 
nite instruction  is  needed,  and  with  regard 
to  Avhich  there  is  a  subtle  and  insicUous 
tendency  in  modern  thought  to  depart 
from  the  New  Testament  representation. 
The  evangelical,  and  even  the  ecclesias- 
tical phrases  are  retained ;  but  they  are 
emptied  of  their  meaning.  The  Incarna- 
tion is  interpreted  in  the  light  of  man's 
creation  in  the  image  of  God.  God  and 
man  are  regarded  as  homogeneous  in 
nature,  as  mutually  inclusive,  and  not 
exclusive.  This  philosophical  postulate  is 
Scriptural,  and  is  of  immense  advantage ; 
l)ut  it  has  paved  the  way  for  a  new  series 
of  Christolocfical  errors.     The  man  Christ 


211       riiiLosoPiiY  OF  riiEAciiixij. 

Jesus,  the  bearer  of  a  sinless  and  perfect, 
an  ideal  and  archetypal  humanity,  lias 
come  by  many  to  be  regarded  as  ij>so  facto, 
the  manifested  God ;  and  his  tleity  has 
been  reduced  to  a  uni(pie  divinity.  It  is 
a  new  form  of  Unitarianism,  retaining  the 
language  wliich  Christian  usage  lias  con- 
secrated. According  to  this  view  God  was 
indeed  in  Christ,  but  only  as  He  is  poten- 
tially in  every  man,  as  He  is  consciously 
and  energetically  in  every  hoi}-  man,  as  he 
must  be  in  plenary  i)Ower  in  the  lioliest  of 
men,  in  the  man  wliose  moral  altitude  is 
the  loftiest. 

Such  an  interpretation  might  possibly 
cover  the  description  in  the  Synoptic  Gos- 
pels, and  even  the  statements  in  the  Pauline 
Epistles  ;  but  it  will  not  lit  the  facts  whieli 
emerge  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  which 
embodies  the  ripest  fruit  of  the  matured 
apostolic  reminiscence  and  reflection.  For 
in  this  Gospel  our  Lord  is  represented  as 
having  affirmed  His  conscious  existence 
in  Abraham's  day,  as  having  claimed  the 
riglit  to  ('(pial  honor  with  the  Fatlier,  and 
as  ha\ing  prayi'd  that  He  might  Ix-  inves- 
ted witii  the  ghuy  A\hiih  He  ha<l  witli  the 
Father  befoie  the  Wdrld  was.      The  siidess 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  215 

man  could  not  have  said  these  things,  if 
they  Avere  not  true ;  and  they  disclose  to 
us  the  deepest  ground  of  His  disciplined 
and  matured  personal  consciousness.  There 
is  a  great  and  impassable  gulf  here  be- 
tween Him  and  all  other  men.  Tlie  period 
before  birth  is  to  us  all  an  absolute  blank ; 
and  the  first  years  of  our  infancy  are 
shrouded  in  the  same  impenetrable  gloom. 
No  philosopher,  no  saint,  has  been  able  to 
pierce  to  the  beginnings  of  mortal  life. 
What  must  the  j^ersonal  consciousness  be 
which  leaps  back  to  Abraham's  time,  and 
to  the  period  antedating  creation  ?  Out 
of  that  reminiscence  grew  in  John's  mind 
the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  in  the  prologue 
to  his  Gospel ;  which  doctrine  is  thus  seen 
to  be  not  a  speculative  notion,  borrowed 
from  Alexandria,  but  a  strictly  inductive 
conclusion  from  the  facts  which  our  Lord's 
utterances  disclosed.  It  may  not  be  pos- 
sible to  define  the  exact  nature  of  the 
indwelling  Deity  in  tlie  man  Jesus  Cluist ; 
but  it  certainly  was  altogether  unique, 
constituting  Him  the  only  begotten  Son 
of  God ;  and  the  spiritual  indwelling  of 
God  in  believers  cannot  be  accepted  as  an 
analogue,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there 


216      niiLOsoruY  of  rnKArnixo. 

"were  elements  in  C'hiists  niiituied  personal 
conseioiLsness,  whieli  are  wanting,  even  in 
the  most  rudimentary  forms,  in  the  con- 
scious life  of  humanity. 

On  the  natui-e  of  the  indwelling  of  God 
in  Christ,  the  Church  has  never  been  able 
to  pronounce  judgment,  and  it  probably 
•will  never  be  able  to  do  so.  It  has  con- 
tented itself  with  negative  deliverances. 
It  has  rejected  Nestorianism,  Ijecause  that 
kept  the  (iod  and  the  man  too  far  apart; 
it  rejected  Eutychianism,  because  tliat 
brought  them  too  close  together,  making 
of  them  an  incongruous  mixture  ;  it  rejec- 
ted Apollinarianism,  because  that  truncated 
the  man;  and  it  has  rejected  every  notion 
which  suggested  a  dormant,  or  paralyzed, 
or  quiescent  God,  or  Avhich  regarded  Him 
as  having  reduced  Himself  to  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  human  soul.  It  has  insisted 
upon  leaving  intact  the  man  Christ  Jesus ; 
but  it  has  also  claimed  that  Avhat  He  said 
about  Himself  disclosed  a  uni(pie  indwell- 
ing of  essential  Godhood,  whose  reality 
cannot  be  gainsaid  without  impeaching 
either  his  veracity  or  his  mental  sanity. 
And  it  is  equally  plain  that  the  unique 
and    mysterious   personal    constitution    of 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  217 

our  Lord  gives  a  peculiar  authority  to  his 
teachings,  a  singuLir  force  to  his  precepts 
and   promises,   a   unique    function   to   his 
death,  resurrection,    ascension,   and   inter- 
cession.     My   apology   for   this    doctrinal 
digression  must  be  the  important  part  which 
this  theme  has  had  in  my  own  early  stuches, 
and  the  central  place  which  it  holds  in  the 
theology  of  the  present.     The  most  jDracti- 
cal  thing   any  of  you  can  do  is  to  make 
your  footing  in  Christology  firm  and  secure, 
so  that  you  can  preach  the  Living  Christ 
as  the  wisdom  and  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation. 

Of  hardly  less  practical   importance    is 
the  rule  that  the  preacher  should  always 
aim  to  make  himself  perfectly  understood 
by  all  who  listen  to  him.     By  this  I  do  not 
mean  that  his  thought  and  utterance  must 
be  on  a  level  with  the  youngest  and  the 
least  matured  in  his  auchence.     A  certain 
degree  of  mental  and  moral  activity  is  re- 
quired in  the  hearer ;  and  this  preliminary 
discii^line  belongs    more   properly   to    the 
household,  than  to  the  preacher  in  the  con- 
duct of  public  worship  and  in  the  discharge 
of  his  office  as  a  Christian  teacher.     The 
pulpit   must   address   itself   to    men    and 


218         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

women,  and  to  all  whose  years  have  brought 
tliem  to  lialnts  of  reflection,  and  to  the 
period  of  clear-cut  conscious  personal  re- 
sponsibility ;  while  parents  must  be  urged 
to  be  priests  in  their  own  homes,  rearing 
their  childi-en  in  the  nurture  and  admoni- 
tion of  the  Lord.  The  pulpit  must  be  mas- 
culine, not  infantile.  Even  the  childi-en 
will  be  attracted  by  its  manliness.  For 
they  soon  become  impatient  of  any  mode 
of  address,  or  tone  of  utterance,  which  sug- 
gests condescension  on  the  part  of  the 
speaker ;  and  T  apprehend  that  we  do  not 
give  them  full  credit  for  the  intellectual 
and  moral  activity  of  which  they  are  com- 
petent. Almost  before  you  know  it,  your 
boys  and  girls,  if  you  have  cultivated  their 
acquaintance  and  secured  their  friendship 
in  a  manly  way,  will  become  your  most 
attentive  listeners  and  your  keenest  critics. 
I  have  frequently  been  surprised  at  the 
way  in  which  lads  twelve  and  fourteen 
years  of  age,  and  young  misses  no  older, 
have  spoken  to  me  of  the  help  given  them 
by  discourses  which  T  had  supposed  to  be 
beyoiul  their  comprehension,  in  the  prep- 
aration and  delivery  of  which  I  had  simply 
endeavored  to  use  the  language  of  the  peo- 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  219 

pie ;  and  my  own  ministry  lias  convinced 
me  that  children  are  keener  listeners  than 
we  suspect. 

A  much  more  serious  and  prevalent  ob- 
stacle to  the  preacher's  success,  than  the 
immatuiity  of  his  hearers,  is  the  distraction 
of  their  thought,  their  volatile  and  incon- 
stant temper.  They  are  active  about  too 
many  things,  and  the  will  is  not  summoned 
to  exert  its  power  of  restraint.  There  is  a 
lack  of  attention,  and  that  can  never  be 
remedied  by  anything  but  the  manliest  ad- 
di'ess,  where  weighty  thought  is  comnui- 
nicated  in  clear,  dignified,  and  forcible 
speech.  Do  not  put  on  the  air  of  a  phi- 
losopher. Do  not  speak  in  the  language  of 
a  professional  theologian.  On  the  other 
hand,  do  not  become  a  clown  nor  pose  as  a 
wit,  nor  run  into  story  telling,  nor  fall  into 
the  slang  of  the  street.  The  true  speech 
of  the  pulpit  is  plain,  direct,  unconven- 
tional, conversational,  with  a  quiet,  manly 
dignity  befitting  the  occasion  and  the 
theme. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  imperative  neces- 
sity of  recasting  the  results  of  3'our  profes- 
sional studies  into  logical  and  verl)al  forms 
of  your  own.     The  process  needs  to  be  car- 


220         PHILOSOniY  OF  rREACIlING. 

lied  a  step  farther,  to  tlie  translation  of 
your  own  theological  conceptions  into  the 
vocabulary  of  the  people.  It  is  reported  of 
one  of  the  Alexanders  that  he  once  su^)- 
plied  the  place  of  a  theological  student  in 
a  rural  pulpit  near  Princeton,  where  no 
one  kneAV  him,  and  that  one  of  the  eldei"S 
wrote  back  to  the  seminary,  that  while  the 
old  man  was  not  as  ilne  a  preacher  as  their 
regular  supply,  he  was  a  '•  mighty  good 
talker,"  had  interested  the  people  very 
much,  and  that  everyl)ody  would  be  glad 
to  hear  him  again.  A  good  talker  is  the 
most  effective  preacher.  He  will  wear  the 
longest  and  command  the  highest  regard. 
Sound,  sensible  talk,  when  it  is  dashed  with 
Avholesome  passion,  and  vital  with  intense 
earnestness,  will  break  out  into  the  most 
genuine  eloquence  and  pathos. 

I  am  afraid  that  we  have  studird  models 
of  eloquence  too  much.  There  is  a  won- 
derful similarity  between  the  great  and 
effective  preachers  of  any  single  period. 
Tlicrc  is  an  r(|nally  marked  difference  be- 
tween the  great  and  effective  preachers  of 
any  given  period,  and  those  wlio  })receded 
or  followed  tliiiii.  Tlicrc  is  often  the 
jrreatest  contrast  bclwem  the  earhand  the 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  221 

later  style  of  the  same  man,  as  may  be  no- 
ticed in  tlie  case  of  Charles  H.  Spiirgeon. 
The  change  is  partly  clue  to  personal  de- 
velopment, bnt  mainly  to  an  increasingly 
closer  identification  with  j^opular  habits  of 
speech.  Language,  too,  is  an  elastic  in- 
strument ;  it  is  in  a  state  of  constant  flux ; 
and  the  speech  of  the  pulpit,  where  it  is 
most  vigorous  and  effective,  always  betrays 
the  current  forms  of  earnest  and  thoughtful 
address.  As  in  the  pronunciation  and  defi- 
nition of  words  we  frequently  pass  from 
the  dictionaries  to  ordinary  usage,  so  must 
language  be  studied  and  mastered  as  a  liv- 
ing organism,  not  as  an  embalmed  or  pet- 
rified relic  of  the  past.  Macaulay,  and 
Robert  Hall,  and  Foster,  may  be  read  to 
great  advantage,  but  so  may  the  periodicals 
and  the  newspapers  of  the  present  day. 
The  current  speech  may  not  be  as  classical 
and  polished  as  your  scholarly  tastes  might 
wish  it  were,  but  you  must  take  it  as  you 
find  it,  avoid  its  coarseness,  and  make  the 
best  use  of  it  possible.  You  may  not  ig- 
nore it,  any  more  than  you  would  ignore 
the  coat,  vest,  and  pantaloons,  which  society 
has  adopted  as  a  man's  regulation  dress. 
You  may  think  knee-breeches,  and  a  scarlet 


222         rillLOSOPJIT  of  PREACniNG. 

waistcoat,  and  silver  shoe-buckles,  and  \)ov:- 
dered  hair,  and  lace  ruffles,  much  more  i)ic- 
tures<jue  and  becoming,  but  you  would 
hardly  appear  in  such  an  outfit  in  the  pul- 
pit. Style  is  the  dress  of  thought.  It  must 
conform  to  popular  usage.  It  must  not  be 
antique  and  antiquated,  l)ut  modern  and 
pi'actical.  Instruction  in  rhetoric  and  logic 
is  not  confined  to  a  few  classical  models ;  it 
must  be  sought,  with  equal  diligence,  in 
the  language  which  the  great  majority  uses. 
And  tliis  common  speeeli  will  be  found 
not  to  be  lacking  in  dignity  and  force.  It 
is  a  noble  instrument,  by  the  use  of  \\hi(li 
society  conducts  its  intellectual  exchange, 
and  whose  simple  nervous  energy  the  best 
literature  appropriates  and  preserves.  Talk 
in  the  pulpit  as  earnest  men  talk  to  each 
other,  and  as  they  talk  to  you.  That  will 
be  almost  sure  to  lead  you  to  cultivate 
wliat  is  called  extcmi)orane()Us  preaching, 
—  whicli  is  neitlicr  nicmoiiter  recitation, 
nor  loose,  unconnected,  luipremeditated 
speech,  —  but  the  free  utterance  of  clear 
and  thoroughly  mastered  thought.  You 
ought  to  be  able  to  read  a  1)ook.  and  then, 
witliout  a  memorandnin  1o  liclj)  you,  to 
give    an    intelligent  and    coniu'ctcd    slate- 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  223 

ment  of  its  argument  and  conclusions,  just 
a-^  the  best  recitation  in  the  class-room  is 
the  free  reproduction  of  the  assigned  les- 
son. I  remember  reciting  page  after  page 
of  Butler's  Analogy  without  any  conscious- 
ness of  verbal  bondage,  having  been  solely 
intent  upon  grasping  the  thought  in  all  its 
windings  and  iii  its  logical  termination. 
And  you  ought  to  be  able  to  write  a  care- 
ful and  connected  synopsis  of  a  sermon, 
amounting  almost  to  a  fully  written  dis- 
course, and  then  reproduce  it  in  the  speech 
which  the  thought  will  spontaneously  sug- 
gest. The  secret  consists  in  the  mastery 
of  the  matter,  and  in  the  clearness  of  the 
logical  analysis.  It  involves  the  abandon- 
ment of  an  ambition  to  say  fine  or  eloquent 
things,  and  to  make  your  discourses  bril- 
liant with  literary  adornment ;  though  the 
truest  eloquence  will  come  often  when  you 
are  least  laboring  for  it,  when  your  thought 
is  at  white  heat,  and  when  phrases  will  leap 
to  your  lips  which  half  an  hour  afterwards 
you  may  not  be  able  to  reproduce.  The 
secret  of  forcible  extemporaneous  speech  is 
in  having  something  weight}'  to  say,  and  in 
the  determination  to  make  yourself  clearly 
understood.     Whether  you  use  the  pen  or 


224         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRE  ACHING. 

not,  in  the  work  of  preparation,  is  a  matter 
of  subordinate  importance,  though  the  rule 
will  be  a  pretty  free  and  careful  use  of  the 
pen,  without  a  slavish  Ijondage  to  the  lines 
which  are  traced  upon  the  })aper. 

I  do  not  object  to  written  sermons.  I 
do  not  object  to  their  being  read.  There 
are  occasions  when  every  man  resorts  to 
that  method,  and  for  some  men  it  may  be 
ordinarily  the  best.  But  I  do  not  believe 
that  the  extemporaneous  preacher  should 
be  regarded  as  the  exceptional  man ;  nor 
that  free  speech  in  delivering  the  message 
of  God  to  men  is  the  idi-al  form,  in  the 
sense  of  its  being  the  prei-ogative  of  the 
elect  few.  That  assum[)ti(>n  nips  a  whole- 
some ambition  in  tlie  bud,  and  will 
make  a  young  man  who  conscientiously 
attempts  it  feel,  in  spite  of  himself,  that 
he  is  regarded  *as  vain  and  conceited. 
The  extemporaneous  method  is  the  ideal 
method,  only  because  it  is  the  normal 
method.  It  is  not  the  easiest.  It  is,  of 
idl  iiiftliods,  the  most  exacting  and  per- 
ilous. It  exposes  to  the  greatest  ex- 
tremes, and  makes  havoc  of  any  attempt 
to  maintain  a  fair  average.  l)Ut  its  very 
(liHii-iiltirs   constitute    its    practical    powci'. 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  225 

It  keys  the  preacher  to  the  utmost  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  tension.  It  brings  out 
all  the  man  there  is  in  him;  while  the 
erectness  of  his  posture,  the  kindling  of 
his  eye,  the  naturalness  of  his  tone,  them- 
selves constitute  an  instrument  of  convic- 
tion. It  is  worth  all  it  costs ;  and  there 
are  few  men  who,  by  diligent  and  faithful 
endeavor  through  a  series  of  years,  cannot 
become  acceptable  and  forcible  masters  of 
extemporaneous  speech,  while  many  men 
part  with  half  of  their  power  through  an 
early  and  long-continued  surrender  to  the 
written  manuscript.  You  may  not  puljiish 
as  many  volumes  of  sermons  if  you  pursue 
this  method,  for  a  sermon  uttered  in  free, 
conversational  speech  hardly  ever  reads 
well  J  but  then  sermons  are  not  read  much 
anyhow,  and  when  you  remember  how 
widely  and  eagerly  Robertson's  sketches 
have  been  read,  not  one  of  which  was 
written  before  he  preached  it,  you  will 
conclude  that  a  sermon  lives  not  because 
it  was  carefully  written,  but  because  it  was 
preached  at  white  heat.  There  is  no 
special  need,  that  I  know  of,  wh}-  there 
slioidd  be  an  increase  of  sermonic  literature, 
and  an  average  of  one  printed  sermon  in 


226      PHILOSOPHY  of  preaching. 

twenty  years  for  every  minister  in  the 
United  States  -would  add  annually  live 
LundnMl  volumes  to  our  li])raries  ;  so  that, 
on  till'  wliole,  we  might  as  woU  be  content 
to  let  the  ordinary  sermon  do  its  work  at 
the  moment  of  its  utterance.  Strike  that 
one  blow  ^vith  all  the  power  that  you  can 
muster. 

But  it  is  not  enough  for  you  to  preach 
in  such  a  way  that  men  cannot  fail  to 
undei'stand  you.  You  must  connnand  not 
only  their  attention,  but  their  approval. 
By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  you  are  to  be 
anxious  of  popular  applause.  Behind  many 
a  cheer  there  is  a  covert  sneer,  and  at  the 
heart  of  many  a  curse  there  is  invohuitary 
homage.  Popularity  is  neither  to  Ije 
souoht  nor  to  be  avoided;  but  the  assent 
of  the  moral  judgment  should  be  every 
preacher's  earnest  and  constant  aim  —  com- 
mending himself  to  ever}-  man's  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God.  The  Gospel  whieh 
you  are  commissioned  to  preach  is  for 
every  man  and  lor  all  men.  It  igm)res  all 
differences  of  rank,  and  distinctions  of 
race,  in  its  urgent  ai>i)eals  to  repentance, 
in  its  ethical  instructions,  and  in  its  gracious 
promises.     It  is  no  respecter   of   persons. 


THE  PRACTICAL   ELEMENT.  227 

That  does  not  mean  that  it  looks  with 
equal  contempt  upon  everybody,  but  with 
equal  and  genuine  regard.  It  maintains 
inviolate  the  prerogatives  and  privileges, 
the  duties  and  the  dignities,  of  each  and 
all.  It  speaks  a  universal  language,  touch- 
ing upon  matters  which  come  home  to  all 
with  equal  force.  The  preacher  should 
never  permit  himself  to  sj)eak  in  such  a 
way  as  to  divide  his  audience  into  parties, 
whose  concurrent  moral  judgment  he  is 
unable  to  command. 

This  rules  out  the  discussion  of  all  topics, 
however  vital  and  important  in  their  vway, 
on  which  equally  honest  men  may  earnestly 
disagree.  Never  meddle  with  party  poli- 
tics in  the  pulpit.  It  is  the  devil's  snare. 
The  ethical  principles  involved  in  the  con- 
stitution and  the  administration  of  gfovern- 
ment,  and  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of 
citizenship,  are  legitimate  themes  for  dis- 
cussion by  the  preacher;  but  the  applica- 
tion of  these  principles  to  specific  cases 
must  be  left  to  every  man's  independent 
and  intelligent  decision.  If  you  advise 
him  from  the  pulpit,  you  are  assuming  the 
role  of  a  political  boss,  and  the  resentment 
will  be  natural  and  risfhteous.     And  even 


228         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

in  the  inculcation  of  the  ethical  principles 
of   political   economy,    it   is    the    part    of 
wisdom   to    make    them    prominent  when 
the  i)opu]ar  pulse  is  not  feverish.    Election 
sermons    accomplish  little   good,  however 
cautious  the  argument,  and  however  rmob- 
jectionable  the  matter,  because  your  hearers 
will  be  perpetually  wondering  what  ticket 
you  are  trying  to  help.     Don't  preach  on 
temperance  on  the  Sunday  before  the  polls 
open,  when  the  prohibition  candidates  are 
canvassing  for  votes.  You  may  injure  a  good 
cause  by  advocating  it  at  an  inopportune 
time ;   and  even  if  you  are  a  pronounced 
political    prohibitionist    on     conscientious 
moral  grounds,  many  of  yom-  hearers  are 
not,   and   they   have   as  good  a  riglit   to 
judge  for  themselves  in  matters  of  j^ractical 
legislation  as  you  have.     Take  the  stump, 
if  you  want  to,  though  I  think  you  had 
better   not;    but   at   all    events,   let   your 
pulpit  voice  only  the  autliority  of   Jesus 
Christ.     A    prominent   New   York   pastor 
told  me   recently  that  the  most  effective 
sermon  which  lie  ever  preached  on  Christian 
giving  fell  upon  a  Sunday,  when  the  bas- 
kets were  not  passed,  and  the  people  knew 
that  they  would  not  be.     lie  did  it  delib- 


THE  PRACTICAL    ELEMENT.  229 

erately,  and  the  result  amazed  him.  When 
the  next  collection  was  taken,  everybody 
was  eager  to  give,  and  the  contributions 
doubled.  They  stayed  there,  too.  The 
effect  was  permanent.  There  is  in  this  a 
practical  hint  of  the  greatest  importance, 
that  the  minister's  best  work  is  always 
done  when  no  one  can  suspect  that  he  is 
posing  as  a  special  pleader. 

Few  things  are  of  greater  practical  im- 
portance, than  securing,  and  keeping,  the 
confidence  of  your  hearers  in  your  per- 
sonal integrity,  and  in  your  enthusiastic 
devotion  to  your  work.  Respect  for  the 
cloth  is  rapidly  disapj)earing.  You  must 
be  a  man  among  men.  Do  not  whine. 
Do  not  fish  for  comj)liments.  Do  not  go 
about  with  hat  in  hand  as  if  you  were  a 
beggar.  Live  within  your  income,  and  if 
it  is  not  paid  promptly,  appeal  to  the  man- 
liness of  your  church  or  parish  officers. 
Be  a  straightforward  Imsiness  man  in  busi- 
ness matters.  JNIake  both  ends  meet.  You 
can  do  it  as  easily  as  the  men  to  whom  you 
preach,  the  majority  of  whom  do  not  handle 
as  much  money  as  you  do.  Pay  your  debts 
promptly,  and  do  not  suffer  them  to  accu- 
mulate until  your  people  become  ashamed 


230         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHING. 

of  you  and  cancel  them  for  you.  Such 
favors  will  destroy  your  self-respect,  and 
make  you  the  object  of  silent  but  severe 
contempt.  Wherever  you  are,  do  yoiu- 
best.  Do  not  permit  yourself  to  regard 
your  parish  as  only  a  temporary  abode,  a 
stepping-stone  to  something  more  desira- 
ble and  more  worthy  of  you.  The  men 
who  do  that,  as  I  could  easily  prove  to 
you  by  reference  to  living  examples,  are 
the  bitterly  disappointed  men,  who  end 
their  days  in  neglected  sadness.  He*who 
seeks  his  life  is  sure  to  lose  it.  Self-for- 
getfulness  must  be  your  habitual  temper. 
You  may  see  inferior  men  preferred  to  you. 
Honors  may  come  to  them,  while  you  are 
ignored.  If  so,  do  not  complain.  Do  not 
become  morose.  Do  not  permit  yourself 
to  cherish  the  idea  that  you  are  slighted, 
or  the  victim  of  a  eons[)iracy.  Do  your 
own  work  all  the  more  heartily,  (rive  it 
all  your  time  and  strength.  Your  cliurch 
has  a  right  to  them,  and  you  will  make  a 
most  stuix'udons  blnnder  if  you  imagine 
that,  by  dispersing  your  activity,  you  can 
increase  your  influence. 

Be   a  king  at  home,  and  surrender  the 
domestic   reins   to    no    other   hands.      Be 


THE  PRACTICAL   ELEMENT.  231 

chary  of  pulpit  exchanges.    Preach  in  your 
own  pulpit,  and  let  your  o^yn  people  see 
that  you  do  this  on  principle,  and  by  de- 
liberate  preference.     And  whenever   you 
preach,    always    do   your    best.      Do    not 
hoard  your  resources,  doling  them  out  by 
weight  and   measure,  holding   back  more 
than  you  give,  from  fear  that  no  new  sup- 
plies   can   be  gathered.     Empty   the  cup- 
board.    The    healthiest   state  you  can  be 
in  on  Sunday   night  is  that  of   complete 
exhaustion,  not  physical,  but  intellectual ; 
the  feeling  that  you  have  pumped   your- 
self dry.     That  will  compel  you  to  fresh 
and  deeper   study.     That  will  foster  the 
temper  of  mental  vigilance ;  and  that  will 
make  you  grow.     And  your  people  will  be 
quick  to  discern  the  generosity  and  unself- 
ishness of  your  disposition.    Devotion  will 
provoke  devotion.     Confident  of  your  in- 
tegrity and  fidelity,  tliey  will  make  all  due 
allowances  for  you.     They  will  not  expect 
you  to  strike  twelve  every  time  you  preach ; 
and  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  much 
of  good  they  discern  in  your  most  stum- 
bling speech.  Give  yourself  wliolly  to  them, 
and  put  your  whole  soul  into  every  service, 
and  you  will  not  fail  to  fasten  them  to  you 


232      riiiLosopiiY  of  pneaching. 

as  by  bands  of  tempered  steel.  Thej'  will 
not  grow  weary  of  you  Avlien  you  grow 
old.  The  dead  line  in  the  ministry,  as  in 
any  other  calling,  is  the  line  of  laziness. 
The  lawyer  cannot  use  last  year's  briefs. 
The  physician  cannot  depend  on  last  week's 
diagnosis.  The  merchant  cannot  assume 
that  a  customer  of  ten  yeai-s'  standing  will 
not  be  enticed  elscAvhere.  And  the  preacher 
must  be  a  live,  wide-awake,  growing  man. 
Let  liim  dye  his  brains,  not  liis  hair.  Let 
his  thought  be  fresh,  and  his  speech  be 
glowing.  Sermons,  it  lias  well  been  said, 
are  like  bread,  wliich  is  delicious  when  it 
is  fresh ;  but  whicli,  Avhen  a  month  ohl,  is 
hard  to  cut,  liarder  to  eat,  and  liardest  of 
all  to  digest.  Be  resolute  in  tliis  matter. 
Some  of  your  friends  may  urge  you  to  take 
things  more  easily.  Tliere  is  danger  in 
overwork;  but  laziness  is  more  generally 
the  ministerial  besetting  danger  and  sin  ; 
and  as  soon  as  a  man  yields  to  that,  he 
will  lind  the  })eoplc  becoming  listless,  and 
one  by  one  dropping  out  of  their  pews.  It 
is  your  business  to  keep  them  fidl,  so  far 
as  Christian  earnestness  and  lidclily,  on 
your  part,  can  do  it. 

I  have  but  one  moi'c  suggestion  to  make. 


THE  PRACTICAL  ELEMENT.  233 

and  that  is  this :  Xever  fail  to  make  your 
hearers  feel  their  plenary  personal  respon- 
sibility. Every  utterance  of  the  pulpit 
must  urge,  either  exj)licitly  or  implicitly, 
to  moral  decision  and  action.  The  hearei-s 
must  be  made  to  see  that  there  is  something 
for  them  to  do,  and  that  it  must  be  done 
at  once,  that  the  moral  obligation  may  be 
neither  evaded  nor  j^ostponed.  However 
broad  the  range  of  your  preaching,  it  must 
always  grapple  with  the  individual  con- 
science, and  summon  the  soul  to  bow  to 
the  moral  judgment  which  it  passes  upon 
itself.  This  is  bringing  men  face  to  face 
with  God  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and  such  preach- 
ing cannot  fail  to  be  in  power,  and  in  the 
demonstration  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

]My  task  is  done.  I  have  spoken  plainly 
and  strongly,  but  not  unad\dsedly.  I  have 
brought  you  the  sifted  wheat  of  a  quarter 
of  a  century  of  ministerial  experience  ;  and 
I  leave  you  to  separate  from  it  the  chaff 
that  may  be  mixed  w^ith  it.  I  have  put 
my  profoundest  personal  convictions  into 
these  lectures,  under  the  feelinor  that  in 
this  way  I  could  serve  you  best  in  the  dis- 
charge of  my  duty.  I  thank  you  for  your 
patient  attention.     It  has  been  a  pleasure 


234         PHILOSOPHY  OF  PREACHIXG. 

for  me  to  meet  you.  I  shall  always  be 
glad  to  give  you  the  grasp  of  a  brother's 
hand ;  and  I  shall  not  cease  to  pray  for  you, 
that  your  ministry  may  be  abundantly 
fruitful,  bringing  glory  to  our  Lord,  cheer 
and  strength  to  3'our  fellow-men,  and  a 
deepening  joy  to  yoiu-  own  hearts.  Let 
me  close  with  the  great  apostle's  earnest 
charge  to  Timothy : 

'•''Be  thou  an  example  of  the  believers,  in 
word,  in  conversation,  in  charity,  in  spirit, 
in  faith,  in  jjiiriti/.  Give  attendance  to 
readinif,  to  exhortation,  to  doctrine.  Neylect 
not  the  ijift  that  is  in  thee,  ivhich  was  given 
thee  hy  ^^rojt>/feci/,  ivith  the  layiny  on  of  the 
hands  of  the  presbytery.  Meditate  \ipon 
these  things ;  give  thyself  tvholly  to  them, 
that  thy  profiting  may  appear  to  all.  Tahe 
heed  unto  thyself,  and  \into  the  doctrine  ; 
continue  in  them ;  for  in  doing  this  thou 
shalt  both  save  thyself  a)td  theni  that  hear 
thee:' 


Typography  by  J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


Presswork  by  Berwick  &  Smith,  Boston,  Mass. 


Date  Due 


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